The 2024 BRGM Awards.
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The BRGM Awards: an incentive that promotes and acknowledges excellence among BRGM Group employees
The BRGM awards are an incentive aimed at promoting and acknowledging excellence. Since 2017, this competition has placed the spotlight on the outstanding results achieved by BRGM group employees.
Eight individuals or teams won prizes in six categories for their achievements in 2024:
- the "Friends of BRGM" (Amicale BRGM) Prize for scientific mediation,
- the Thesis Prize (with two prize-winners),
- the Innovation and Research Partnership Prize,
- the Scientific Publication Prize (with two prize-winning teams),
- the Scientific Expertise Prize,
- the Support Action Prize.
Awarding the 2024 "Amicale BRGM" Prize for scientific mediation.
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The "Amicale BRGM" Prize for scientific mediation
This award aims to promote the scientific mediation initiatives carried out by BRGM Group employees. The mediation actions are aimed at every type of audience, and especially young people. Particular focus is given to the following activities:
- promoting media coverage of geosciences and related environmental issues,
- popularising science, written, audiovisual and oral communication, and educational publications on geoscience,
- raising awareness of the aforementioned issues among young people and adults.
Three assessment criteria are taken into account:
- the outstanding nature of the project in terms of its originality and content,
- the scientific approach and the quality of the mediation method,
- the impact of the action in terms of the audiences reached.
Prize awarded to Géraldine Picot for her work on "Hydrogeology experiments in schools: design of a class session involving the handling of a dynamic model"
Awarding the 2024 BRGM Thesis prize.
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The Thesis Prize
This prize is awarded for an outstanding PhD thesis, which contributed to the advancement of geoscientific knowledge. Three assessment criteria are taken into account:
- the scientific quality of the thesis (new knowledge acquired, quality of the method, scientific added value in terms of data, concepts, models),
- the scientific originality of the subject in relation to the "state of the art",
- the prospects opened up by the work (new research avenues, applications, innovation) and the importance of the results in terms of the BRGM Group's flagship areas of expertise.
In 2024, the panel of judges decided to acknowledge two winners.
Prize awarded to Thibault Laigre for his thesis entitled "Impact des tempêtes et risques côtiers sur les îles de la Caraïbe - seuils morphogènes et atténuation par les écosystèmes" (Impact of storms and coastal risks on the Caribbean islands - morphogenic thresholds and mitigation due to the presence of ecosystems)
The purpose of this thesis is to study the role played by coastal ecosystems in reducing the impact of storms using methods combining on-site and off-site observation data and digital simulations. The results of the thesis, which focused on characteristic Caribbean ecosystems such as coral reefs and beach top vegetation, demonstrate the importance of preserving these coastal ecosystems as a natural, sustainable and effective solution for reducing coastal risks. The thesis was conducted as part of the Interreg Carib-Coast project and has appeared in 3 publications. It was also used as a reference base for drafting a methodological guide for assessing the services provided by tropical ecosystems. Further projects are planned in other environments in Guadeloupe and French Polynesia.
Awarding the 2024 BRGM Thesis Prize - the Jury's Special Prize.
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Jury's Special Prize awarded to Georges Farina for his thesis entitled "Economic Valuation of Innovative Rainwater Management Solutions"
Georges Farina's thesis makes important scientific contributions. Based on the economic method of discrete choice experiments, it studies various innovative rainwater management solutions, especially Nature-Based Solutions (NBS). It highlights how much the benefits of these solutions can vary, depending on their spatial distribution. The thesis provides a support tool for decision-making, based on multi-objective optimisation using genetic algorithms. It explores the complex spatial factors involved in planning and selecting the most effective nature-based solutions for rainwater management in the Bordeaux metropolitan area, while also ensuring controlled recharge of aquifers. This is a CIFRE thesis funded by Bordeaux Métropole. It has appeared in three publications. Follow-up projects are currently being studied in other regions such as Rennes, Toulouse and Nantes.
Awarding the 2024 BRGM Innovation and Research Partnership Prize.
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The Innovation and Research Partnership Prize
The Innovation Prize acknowledges the work of one or more BRGM employees, who completed the development of an outstanding innovation during 2024 (a product, software or service, etc.) or a project that produced an outstanding result in partnership with industry.
Prize awarded to Cédric Duée for the "LODAIM - light-weight optical detector of asbestos in materials"
A reliable and rapid on-site asbestos detection system for conducting regulatory audits or for defining recovery and recycling processes, in order to optimise work-site operations and reduce sample losses.
Patent shared with CNRS.
Awarding the 2024 BRGM Scientific Publication Prize - two winners.
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The Scientific Publication Prize
This prize acknowledges one or more BRGM Group employees, who published an outstanding international scientific paper over the past year. To be eligible, the publication must have appeared in an international journal and the principal author must be from the BRGM Group. If the employees from BRGM are co-authors, they must have made a significant contribution to the article in a very prestigious journal.
Prize awarded to Rémi Thiéblemont, Goneri Le Cozannet, Jérémy Rohmer, Daniel Raucoules and Marcello de Michele for their publication of the first Europe-wide assessment of coastal subsidence
Publication reference: Rémi Thiéblemont, Goneri Le Cozannet, Jérémy Rohmer, Daniel Raucoules, Marcello de Michele (and others). "Assessing Current Coastal Subsidence at Continental Scale: Insights From Europe Using the European Ground Motion Service." PNAS journal, September 2023.
Awarding the 2024 BRGM Scientific Publication Prize - two winners.
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Prize awarded to Maxime Cochennec and Stéfan Colombano for their publication on the thermal decontamination of soils using microwaves
Publication reference: Maxime Cochennec, Stéfan Colombano (and others). "Microwave-enhanced thermal removal of organochlorine pesticide (chlordecone) from contaminated soils." Chemosphere, March 2024.
Awarding the 2024 BRGM Scientific Expertise Prize.
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The Scientific Expertise Prize
This prize is awarded to one or more employees involved in an outstanding project or activity carried out for a public body in France or abroad, and which had a notable impact in 2024. Three assessment criteria are taken into account:
- the impact of the action or project (economic, environmental, social, safety, etc.),
- the originality or scientific added value of the project or the auditing or consultancy work,
- the importance of the result in terms of the BRGM Group's flagship areas of expertise.
Prize awarded to Mikael Philippe, Virginie Hamm, Anne-Gaelle Bader and Bernard Sanjuan for their audit entitled "Characterisation of national geothermal potential"
Awarding the 2024 BRGM Support Action Prize.
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Support Action Prize
This prize rewards a group of employees for an outstanding action involving BRGM's support functions. The aim is to highlight an outstanding action, project or innovation that has improved the way the establishment operates. Two assessment criteria are taken into account:
- the remarkable nature of the action and its impact on BRGM's operations or image,
- the collective or generic nature of the action.
