Christian Colliex was awarded the medal “Vernon E. Cosslett” by the IFSM – International Federation for Societies of Microscopy, to honour his outstanding contributions in the field of microscopy and related techniques.
The medal was given at the closing session of the conference IMC 19, at the Sydney International Convention Centre, by the IFSM president Kazuo Furuya, and the Awards Committee Chair, Joachim Maier. The “Vernon E. Cosslett” medal is one of four medals given every four years at the international congress.
Christian Colliex is an emeritus member of the Electron Microscopy group, which he has led over 35 years until 2009. His main interests have concerned the development of new instrumentation and methodologies for local analysis in condensed matter. Relying mostly on electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) in electron microscopy, these techniques have been used to investigate, down to the atomic level, the structural, chemical, electronic and optical properties of individual nanostructures, nano-objects and defects. His role at the international level is evidenced, for instance, by his joint direction together with Sumio Iijima of a JST-CNRS research program on “Nanotubulites” and by his contribution to the creation of the European Integrated Infrastructure on Advanced Electron Microscopy (ESTEEM). He has been laureate of the French Academy of Sciences (in 1995 and 2005), he has been awarded the Holweck prize 2009 (joint French SFP – British IOP award) and the Grande Médaille of the French Society for Metallurgy and Materials Sciences in 2010. He has served from 2007 to 2011 as President of the IFSM and as President of the International Conference on Microscopies IMC 17 in Rio de Janeiro (2010).