Marc Henneaux (1955- )
Marc Henneaux studied physics at Université libre de Bruxelles in Belgium and received his doctoral degree in 1980 under the supervision of Jules Géhéniau.
He was a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University in 1978–1979 and a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Texas from 1981 to 1984. He then went on to hold a research position at the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS) until 1992, after which he was appointed Associate Professor at Université libre de Bruxelles (1993–1996).
He has been Full Professor at Université libre de Bruxelles since October 1996 and an Associate Member of CECs (Chile) since 1985.
Since 1 January 2004, he has also been the Director of the International Solvay Institutes for Physics and for Chemistry, founded by Ernest Solvay.
Extract
Marina Solvay: Since you became the director of the Institutes, they have taken on an educational role …
Marc Henneaux: The Institutes perform an educational role on two levels. The Solvay name, through its Conferences, is extremely prestigious in the international scientific community. We believe that is an exceptional asset that we must deploy to contribute to education and training: on the one hand, the education of young researchers, and on the other, the hosting of events for the ‘general public’ at which we can ‘vulgarize’ science.
Once a year we organize at Flagey what we call the ‘Solvay Public Event’. It has become such a tradition that we sell out each year. We ask two speakers, who are leading scientists and particularly good communicators, to talk about important issues in their field, so that an interested but not necessarily expert audience may evaluate what is at stake and get a grasp of the discipline’s main issues. In general, we also try to have a panel that can answer any questions that the general public may have; this panel consists of scientists who have taken part in the Conferences.
Traditionally, over a three-year cycle, there is a Conference on Chemistry the first year, followed by an event for the general public at Flagey on subjects that have been raised at the Conference on Chemistry; the next year a Conference on Physics, with the ‘Flagey event’ organized on the themes discussed during that Conference; then a year without a Conference, and where we are therefore freer in our choice of topics to be discussed during the public event, and for which we draw inspiration from the scientific topics of the day. In 2015 for instance, a year without Conference, but which commemorated the hundredth anniversary of Einstein’s theory of relativity, we had two talks on subjects related to general relativity.
Besides that, a whole series of activities are open (not only by invitation) to people who want to come, the only limit being the seating capacity of the Solvay hall! There are workshops, chairs, symposia on physics and on chemistry, and the entire scientific community is welcome. We mostly encounter doctoral and postdoctoral researchers as well as local participating researchers and international guests. We sometimes also have students who are finishing their master’s degree.
Marina Solvay: How do you see the future of the Institutes?
Marc Henneaux: It is always difficult to talk about the future, but there are several ways of approaching the question. I think that the future of physics is assured: there are huge questions that we do not understand in physics; it is a discipline that is as alive today as it was a century ago. The same holds for chemistry, where many fascinating questions also remain open, those enabling us to ‘better understand life’, down to the problems that are more a matter of ‘physical chemistry’. So I would say that these are disciplines that have not yet used up their potential. On the contrary, the more we learn new things, the more we realize that there are things we do not understand. I would say that the disciplines have a brilliant future ahead of them, and since the history of the Institutes is intimately related to the history of physics and chemistry, the future of the Institutes is guaranteed on the scientific level.
I also believe that the functioning model of the Institutes, the history underlying that model and the prestige attached to the Conferences of the past mean that the Institutes have all the cards to keep playing a key role in the development of science. So, from that point of view, I also think that the future is promising.
The question of the funding of research is an ever-recurrent issue, but these are common social questions. We are lucky enough to rely on the Solvay family and the Solvay businesses: unfortunately that does not cover our entire budget, which is supplemented by the authorities, which is always more random … Because obviously we know that the state’s budget is always very tight and that the significance of basic research is not always understood by the general public, nor for that matter by our political leaders.
In other words, it is an everyday struggle, and it is always necessary to convince people. It is never-ending, and yet I think that we will manage in the future just as we have until now. It is extremely important.