2012 Thesis Prize Award Ceremony - Fondation Nanosciences

2012 Thesis Prize 

Award Ceremony 

Invitation 

Lecture Room - 2 nd floor 

CNRS - Building A 

25, rue des martyrs 

38000 Grenoble 

December 5, 2012 

4.30 pm - 7.30 pm

What is the Nanosciences 

Foundation Thesis Prize? 

The Thesis Prize of the Nanosciences Foundation 

was created in 2009. The Prize is worth 1500€ 

and is awarded every year to acknowledge the 

best PhD thesis realised in the Nanosciences field, 

prepared within one of the Grenoble laboratories. 

For this 4 th edition, 24 young PhD students had 

been nominated by their supervisors to enter the 

contest. This year again, two laureates of the 

University of Grenoble receive the 2012 Thesis 

Prize: Anne-Cécile REYMANN (CEA - iRTSV/PCV) 

and Ioan Mihai POP (CNRS/UJF - Institut Néel). 

Our previous laureates: 

Jessica BAUR 

(UJF/ CNRS - DCM) 

Laureate of the ‘2011 Thesis Prize’ 

Matthieu PIERRE 

(CEA/CNRS/UJF/G INP - INAC/SPSMS) 


Nicolas ROCH 

(CNRS/UJF - Institut NEEL) 


Dimitri HOUSSAMEDINE 

(CEA/CNRS/UJF/G INP - INAC/SPINTEC) 


What is an 

ERC Starting Grant? 

‘ERC’, the European Research Council, 

encourages high quality research in Europe 

through competitive funding. 

ERC Starting Grants are given to up-andcoming 

research leaders who are about to 

establish or consolidate their own research 

team and conduct independent research in 

Europe. 

Candidates are selected by international 

peer reviewers who rank proposals on the 

basis of scientific excellence as the sole 

criterion. 

The ERC scheme targets the best of the 

promising researchers who have the proven 

potential of becoming independent research 

leaders. 

Since its inception 5 years ago, the ERC has 

already granted 19 excellent researchers 

based in Grenoble, whose activities are 

closely linked to the Foundation’s fields of 

excellence. 

François VARCHON 

(CNRS/UJF - Institut NEEL) 


www.fondation-nanosciences.fr

2012 Thesis Prize Award Ceremony Program 

December 5, 2012 

4.30 pm: Welcome talk by the Foundation’s President : 

Farid OUABDESSELAM 

PROGRAMME 

4.35 pm: Stéphane REDON (INRIA) 

Adaptive algorithms for computational nanoscience 

4.55 pm: David COOPER (CEA-LÉTI) 

Single active dopant detection in semiconductor nanowires using electron 

holography 

5.15 pm: Olivier ARCIZET (CNRS/UJF - Institut Néel) 

Hybrid quantum Nano-optomechanics 

5:40 pm: Anne-Cécile REYMANN (CEA - iRTSV/PCV) 

Dynamics of controlled actin network’s architecture 

6:00 pm: Ioan Mihai POP (CNRS/UJF - Institut NEEL) 

Coherent quantum phase-slips in a Josephson junction chain 

6.20pm: The Fondation awards the two laureates 

6.30pm: Cocktail at Maison des Magistères ‘Jean Perrin’ 

To attend the 2012 Thesis Prize Award Ceremony, register for free on: 

http://ceremonie2012.eventbrite.com

Dynamics of controlled actin network’s 

architecture 

Anne-Cécile REYMANN 

PhD of University of Grenoble 

iRTSV/PCV 

Laureate of the 

‘2012 Thesis Prize’ 

Actin networks are one of those fabulous self-organized 

biopolymers that sustain cell architecture while those 

perform highly complex mechanical transformations in 

order to achieve efficient morphogenesis, cell motility 

or any cell shape changes. Perpetual dynamics, 

organization, regulation or rapid reconstruction are only 

a few of the properties required for these morphological 

features which are supported by the actin cytoskeleton. 

During my thesis, I have developed different projects in 

order to tackle the problem of actin network dynamics 

and organization as well as the molecular mechanism 

at the origin of force production in biomimetic 

reconstituted systems. Stepping aside from the 

conventional actin based particles’ motility studies, 

one of the major innovations was to generate highly 

ordered auto-assembled actin motifs, finely tuned by 

the reproducible spatial control of actin nucleation 

sites by micropatterning. Moreover the presence of 

molecular motors, such as myosin, on these controlled 

systems allowed us to reproduce some of the cellular 

biomechanical processes of tension and contractility. 

A direct visualization of filaments demonstrates 

a spectacular myosin-induced actin network 

deformation and disassembly that depend on the 

original network architecture. 

Following an “orientation selection” mechanism such 

phenomenon could therefore play an essential role in 

the spatial regulation and scalability of expanding and 

contracting regions of actin cytoskeleton in cells. 

Ioan Mihai POP 

PhD of University of Grenoble 

Institut Néel 

Laureate of the 

‘2012 Thesis Prize’ 

Coherent quantum phase-slips in a 

Josephson junction chain 

The central result of my thesis is the observation 

of quantum phase-slips in Josephson junction 

networks. A phase slip is associated with the 

passage of a magnetic quasi-particle (a “fluxon”) 

through a Josephson junction chain. 

We have observed the quantum interference of 

phase slips, an effect predicted by Y. Aharonov 

and A. Casher in 1984. This is the electromagnetic 

dual of the well-known Aharonov-Bohm effect. 

We have also demonstrated that a chain of 

Josephson junctions, which is a complex 

mesoscopic object, can accurately be treated 

as a single quantum object, with few degrees of 

freedom. 

These results open the way for a wide range 

of possible uses of quantum phase-slips in the 

design of novel Josephson junction circuits, such 

as topologically protected qubits, frequencyto-current 

conversion devices or quantum 

simulators. 

http://ceremonie2012.eventbrite.com 


Stéphane REDON 

INRIA 

‘ERC Starting Grant 2012’ 

David COOPER 

CEA-LÉTI 


Adaptive algorithms for computational 

nanoscience 

In this talk, we will review the current efforts of 

the NANO-D group at INRIA on the development 

of a theory, and associated algorithms, for 

adaptive simulation of nanosystems. 

In particular, we will present SAMSON, the 

software platform being developed in the group 

(SAMSON: Software for Adaptive Modeling and 

Simulation Of Nanosystems). 

Stephane Redon leads the NANO-D research 

group at the INRIA Grenoble - Rhone-Alpes 

Research Center. He received a Ph.D. 

in Computer Science in 2002 from INRIA 

Rocquencourt - Evry University, France and 

spent two years in the Department of Computer 

Science of the University of North Carolina 

at Chapel Hill as a Post-Doctoral Research 

Associate, before becoming a permanent 

research at INRIA in March 2005. His research 

interests have included the design of robust and 

realistic real-time virtual environments, collision 

detection, haptics, motion planning, simulation 

levels of detail, and computational molecular 

biology. His current research is centered on 

the development of computational methods for 

modeling and simulation of natural and artificial 

nanosystems. 

Single active dopant detection in semiconductor 

nanowires using electron holography 

Off-axis electron holography is a transmission electron 

microscopy based technique that uses an electron 

biprism to interfere an electron wave that has passed 

through a region of interest with an electron wave that 

have passed through a vacuum reference. From the 

resulting interference pattern, known as a hologram 

the phase change of the electrons can be recovered. 

As the phase of an electron is sensitive to the magnetic 

and electrostatic fields, then this technique can be 

used to recover properties such as the potentials from 

active dopants, magnetic fields and strain fields with 

nm-scale resolution. 

As semiconductor devices become smaller, the 

distribution of the dopant atoms within them becomes 

more and more important and introduces variability in 

their electrical performance. This project will develop 

the spatial resolution and sensitivity of electron 

holography in order to detect single dopant atoms in 

semiconductor devices using a state-of-the-art FEI 

Titan TEM which is located at Minatec. The aim is to 

be able to operate these devices in situ in the TEM 

and link their electrical properties to the positions 

of these individual dopants. 

David Cooper received his PhD from the University 

of Cambridge in 2006 in the subject of electron 

holography. Since then David has been at CEA LETI, 

developing a range of TEM-based techniques for the 

characterisation of semiconductors. 



Olivier ARCIZET 

CNRS/UJF - Institut Néel 

Already 19 Grenoble-based researchers in the 

nanosciences field have received European grants 


Hybrid quantum Nano-optomechanics 

2012 

Wiebke 

GUICHARD 


Olivier 

ARCIZET 


Jacek 

KASPRZAK 


Tristan 

MEUNIER 


The intense experimental efforts generated by several 

groups worldwide during the last 5 years have very 

recently culminated by demonstrating what the 

scientific community considered unconceivable only 

10 years ago: cooling a macroscopic mechanical 

oscillator down to its quantum ground state of motion. 

Various kinds of mechanical oscillators have now 

been prepared at ultralow mean phonon occupancy 

by combining traditional cryogenic and active cooling 

techniques, opening the road towards quantum 

nanomechanics. It is now time to envision even more 

challenging experiments aiming at engineering the 

quantum mechanical state of the oscillator. This can 

only be achieved by coupling the ultracold oscillator 

to a second system whose quantum state can be 

independently controlled and transferred onto the 

mechanical oscillator. The combination of these two 

components defines a “hybrid” mechanical system. 

This project aims at exploring the emerging field of 

hybrid quantum nano-optomechanics in a setting where 

both components of the system can be simultaneously 

monitored and controlled. Our goal is to investigate the 

hybrid coupling between a nanomechanical oscillator 

and a Nitrogen Vacancy defect in diamond. 

Olivier Arcizet received his PhD in 2007 from the 

Kastler Brossel Laboratory (Paris). After two years at 

Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching 

as a post-doctoral scientist, he joined the Institut Néel 

in Grenoble where he’s pursuing his research on 

hybrid nano-optomechanics systems. 


2011 

2010 

2009 

2008 

Stéphane 

REDON 

INRIA 

Eva 

MONROY 

INAC 

David 

COOPER 

LÉTI 

Max 

HOFHEINZ 

INAC 

Catherine 

PICART 

LMGP 

Bernard 

DIENY 

SPINTEC 

Vincent 

ARTERO 

iRTSV/LCBM 

Manuel 

THERY 

iRTSV/LPCV 

Silvano 

DE FRANCESCHI 

INAC 

Maxime 

RICHARD 


Thomas 

ERNST 

LÉTI 

Wolfgang 

WERNSDORFER 


Xavier 

WAINTAL 

INAC 

Marek 

POTEMSKI 

LNCMI 

Jean-Louis 

BARRAT 

LIPhy 

Starting GRANT 

Advanced GRANT

F O N D A T I O N N A N O S C I E N C E S 

23 rue des martyrs - 38000 Grenoble FRANCE 

Tel: 00 33 4 56 52 96 28 - www.fondation-nanosciences.fr

2012 Thesis Prize Award Ceremony - Fondation Nanosciences

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