The 2015 Bull-Joseph Fourier Prize was awarded to two teams for their significant contribution to the advancement of awareness of science and innovation and to the development of simulation methods. It was awarded by Catherine Rivière, President and CEO of GENCI and by Philippe Vannier, Executive Director, Big Data and Security and Director of Technology at Atos, before a large audience of representatives of the French scientific community.

Fruit of the collaboration between Atos and GENCI, the goal of the Bull-Joseph Fourier Prize is to contribute to the accelerated development of computer simulation in France and to establish a broad ecosystem bringing together computing centres, research laboratories and European industry.

2015 Bull-Joseph Fourier – First Prize : Saving human lives with accelerated stroke diagnoses.

For their innovative work integrating high-performance computing with medical imagery, the 2015 Bull-Fourier First Prize was awarded to the team of Frédéric Nataf, Research Director at CNRS, Professor Frédéric Hecht, and Pierre-Henri Tournier Postdoc at Laboratory J.-L. Lions of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Project Alpines-INRIA ; Victorita Dolean, Reader at Department of Mathematics and Statistics of University of Strathclyde (Glasgow, UK) and Laboratoire J.-A. Dieudonné at the Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis; Pierre Jolivet, CNRS Researcher at IRIT-ENSEEIHT, Toulouse.

The 2015 Bull-Joseph Fourier First Prize rewards research that is likely to aid in saving human lives. Conducted in collaboration with the medical imaging company, EMTensor, these simulation studies demonstrate the feasibility of an innovative imaging technique based on microwaves allowing differentiation, in less than 15 minutes, between the two types of stroke (ischemic or hemorrhagic) and are usable from patient intake and throughout hospital care. These two points are crucial: speed of detection and characterisation of a stroke are critical to the care and survival of the patient. These simulations are possible through the power of supercomputers, new algorithms and rapid development.

2015 Bull-Joseph Fourier Second Prize : Revolutionising the development of new materials.

Receiving the 2015 Bull-Joseph Fourier Second Prize, was the team of Antoine Levitt, Head of Research at INRIA and Marc Torrent, Principal Investigator at the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission).

Creation of new materials without recourse to experience, and prediction of their properties, using powerful simulation techniques of their electronic structure, this is what the research awarded the 2015 Bull-Joseph Fourier Second Prize will enable. By parallelising the ” ABINIT ” software widely used in the research world, and enabling it to take advantage of the power of extra large supercomputers, which it could not do before, the group awarded had thus paved the way for material-by-design »: defining new materials that meet precise specifications, through the provision of a very large material properties prediction database, rather than through experiments that are often long, costly and hazardous. This touches on all sectors requiring innovative materials : aeronautics, chemistry, health and many more.

Source: Bull