Rewarded Talents

Special Prize for Scientific Mediation 2022: Jean Claude Ameisen

January 09, 2023 - 10 min reading
Jean Claude Ameisen, winner of the CNRS special prize for scientific mediation in 2022

Each year, the CNRS medals are awarded to researchers and employees who make an exceptional contribution to the institution's dynamism and reputation. Discover the work of Jean Claude Ameisen, winner of the Mediation in Science Medal in 2022. With the Medal for Scientific Mediation, the CNRS rewards women and men who put science at the heart of society and disseminate scientific information accessible to different audiences.

"We see further, on the shoulders of giants".

Every Saturday for more than ten years on France Inter, alone at the microphone, Jean Claude Ameisen questioned our humanity in the face of the upheavals of the world. In his program Sur les épaules de Darwin, which attracted more than 1.5 million listeners each week and received several awards, he addressed eclectic subjects, from the theory of evolution to the most recent scientific works, accompanied by texts by writers, scientists, artists and poets.

"Feeling makes it possible to better understand, and understanding makes it possible to better feel," says the physician, immunologist, recognized specialist in programmed cell death, former director of the Inserm U415 unit at the Pasteur Institute in Lille, and honorary president of the National Consultative Ethics Committee (CCNE). He is the author of La sculpture du vivant. Le suicide cellulaire ou la mort créatrice. "I think that the scientific approach must be a full component of our culture, like the arts or philosophy," he says, in addition to his scientific commitments and ethical reflection.

Special Prize for Scientific Mediation 2022: Jean Claude Ameisen by Julien Deschamps © CNRS - 2022