Every year, BRGM awards prizes to highlight the outstanding achievements of the group's employees. Four prizes were awarded for the year 2022.
2 February 2023
BRGM 2022 Prize Awards.

BRGM 2022 Prize Awards.

© BRGM

BRGM awards: a competition of excellence for BRGM group employees

The BRGM awards are a competition for excellence organised since 2017 to recognise outstanding results achieved by BRGM group employees.

In this 2022 edition, five winners or teams won four awards:

  • innovation award;
  • award for contributions to a French or international public institution;
  • scientific publications award;
  • thesis awards (with two prizewinners).

BRGM 2022 Innovation Award

The innovation prize is awarded to one or more BRGM Group employees who have completed the development of an innovation during the year (a product, software or service, etc.) or a project which has achieved a remarkable result in partnership with industry.

This year's prize was awarded to the SOLSA/Inel-Innov project, an expert system combining on-site and real-time analysis for the multi-scale morphological, chemical and mineralogical characterisation of mineral raw materials.

Combining high-tech expertise and application knowledge, the concept targets manufacturers in the fields of mining, industrial minerals, metallurgy, building materials and electronics. The purpose is to speed up the morphological, geochemical and mineralogical characterisation of mineral raw materials during their life cycles (exploration, extraction, transformation, recycling/re-use and storage) by acquiring large quantities of data in real time and directly on site. The use of decision-making software to process these data automatically is a real step forward for the industry.

This project, which originated from a European H2020 research project, has fully matured and culminated in the creation of a company named Inel-Innov to develop the concept created.

Prizewinner: Sylvain Delchini. External stakeholder: Henry Pillière (Inel-INNOV). Partner: ERAMET Idea

BRGM 2022 prize for contributions to a French or international public institution

This prize is awarded to employees involved in a project or activity for a public institution in France or abroad which has had an outstanding impact.

In 2022, this prize was awarded to the team in charge of BRGM's support for the management of the 2022 drought crisis by the State. BRGM was asked to support the interministerial crisis unit by providing expert scientific and technical groundwater knowledge. BRGM experts put forward proposals for action to monitor and predict the fluctuations in water tables in the short term via MétéEAU Nappes and to deploy tools such as regional models to improve the local management of water bodies and their use.

Prizewinners: Francis Garrido, Violaine Bault, Jérôme Nicolas, Bruno Mougin, Marie Pettenati, Pierre Pannet, Jean-Marc Mompelat, Thierry Winter, Dominique Darmendrail.

BRGM Scientific Publications Award 2022

The Scientific Publication Award recognises an outstanding international scientific publication.

For the year 2022, this prize has been awarded for the article entitled Tracing the origin of lithium in Li-ion batteries using lithium isotopes, published in the Nature Communication journal. Lithium is a key mineral in the energy transition due to its use in rechargeable batteries. Demand for it is increasing considerably and is likely to continue to do so. Consumer expectations will also increase in terms of guarantees on the origin of lithium to ensure that it comes from responsible sources. A study published in the Nature Communications journal paves the way for the use of a new method based on isotope analysis to trace the lithium.

Article reference: Desaulty, AM., Monfort Climent, D., Lefebvre, G. et al. Tracing the origin of lithium in Li-ion batteries using lithium isotopes. Nat Commun 13, 4172 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31850-y

Prizewinners: Anne-Marie Desaulty, Daniel Monfort Climent, Gaétan Lefebvre, Catherine Guerrot, Sébastien Perret.

BRGM 2022 Thesis Award

The 2022 thesis prize was awarded to Maurizio d'Anna for his thesis entitled Modelling past and future sandy shoreline change and the respective uncertainties: toward a holistic approach, defended on 10 February 2022.

Changes in sandy shorelines occur in response to a multitude of mutually interacting processes on different spatial and temporal scales, making them difficult to predict. This thesis has enabled us to take a methodological step forward in the probabilistic projection of changes in sandy shorelines in the face of rising sea levels and waves. This topic is linked to major issues in society in relation to coastline changes in the context of climate change.

Thesis carried out in collaboration with the University of Bordeaux. BRGM thesis director: Déborah Idier.

BRGM 2022 thesis prize - Special jury prize

The jury wished to award a special prize to Hugo Duwiquet (Ifpen), for his thesis entitled Crustal Fault Zones as geothermal power systems: contribution of numerical modelling and comparison with natural systems, defended on 27 January 2022.

This thesis, carried out under a Cifre (Industrial research training agreements) partnership with TLS Geothermics, provides a new perspective on the role of crustal faults in deep geothermal systems. Crustal Fault Zones (CFZs) are a potential geological target for high temperature geothermal resources in deep basement and naturally fractured areas. Geological and geophysical data suggest that the Pontgibaud Fault Zone (Puy-de-Dôme) is a CFZ that incorporates an active hydrothermal system at a depth of a few kilometres. The thesis developed an integrated multidisciplinary approach based on 3D modelling. It can be used as a predictive tool to develop high-temperature geothermal operations in basement rocks incorporating large-scale fault systems.

Thesis carried out in collaboration with ISTO (University of Orléans). BRGM thesis director: Laurent Guillou-Frottier.