École Polytechnique: Laurence Bodelot, winner of the Jean Mandel Prize 2021
Assistant professor and researcher at the Solid Mechanics Laboratory, Laurence Bodelot studies the influence of multiscale effects and of multiphysics couplings on the behavior of materials. On October 19, 2021, she was awarded the Jean Mandel Prize.
After a PhD thesis devoted to the coupled study of strain and temperature fields at the microstructural scale of metallic materials at the Mechanics Laboratory of the University of Lille, Laurence Bodelot completed a post-doctoral fellowship at GALCIT (Graduate Aerospace Laboratories) of Caltech, in California where she focused on the influence of microstructure on the emergence of plasticity. In 2012, she joined the Solid Mechanics Laboratory (CNRS / École polytechnique – Institut Polytechnique de Paris) where she is now an assistant professor and researcher .
Multidisciplinary research, from mechanics to materials science
Laurence Bodelot’s work focuses on materials and structures such as metallic alloys and magneto-active smart elastomers . She studies, thanks to novel experimental setups tailored to each problem , the multi-scale mechanisms of deformation and multi-physics couplings within these materials. Her research has applications in fields as varied as non-destructive testing of materials, tactile interfaces and soft robotics.
” In the Solid Mechanics Laboratory, we have developed a new tactile interface whose 3D surface morphology can be controlled by applying a magnetic field . To create ever more innovative materials, we are also studying how to control the microstructure and architecture of materials to give them new properties “, explains Laurence Bodelot.
Work rewarded by the Jean Mandel 2021 prize
At a ceremony held at the École des Mines on October 19, Laurence Bodelot was awarded the Jean Mandel Prize *, of which she is one of the two winners along with Kim Pham, a teacher-researcher at the Mechanics Unit of ENSTA Paris . Intended to encourage scientific research in the field of solid mechanics or mechanics and rheology of materials, this prize is awarded to a researcher or a team of researchers under 40 years, authors of an original work, of theoretical or experimental character in this field, at the level of habilitation to direct research, or of an original application of known results to the Art of Engineering. Organized every two years, it is funded by the École Polytechnique via its Foundation and by the École des Mines de Paris.
” It is a great honor for me to receive this prize, which rewards nearly 10 years of research conducted at the École Polytechnique. I would like to thank those who trained me, the entire team with whom I work and our students from whom we continue to learn “, comments Laurence Bodelot, the first woman to receive the Jean Mandel Prize since its creation in 1981.