The Académie des Sciences announces its new members for 2026
On Tuesday 8 January, the Académie des Sciences announced the election of 18 new members, outstanding scientists and leading figures in their respective fields, who will join the Academy in 2026 following a formal induction ceremony to be held under the Dome of the Institut de France in June. Four of them are members of the Université Paris-Saclay community.
Mathematics
Jean-Benoît Bost is professor at Université Paris-Saclay and director of research at the CNRS within the Arithmetic and Algebraic Geometry team of the Laboratoire de mathématiques d’Orsay (LMO - Univ. Paris-Saclay/CNRS). His research focuses on arithmetic geometry, as well as on questions in algebraic and analytic geometry motivated by number theory. He has a particular interest in algebraisation theorems concerning subvarieties and formal or analytic sheaves on algebraic varieties, and in their arithmetic counterparts.
Physics
Louis Fayard is emeritus director of research at the CNRS at the Laboratoire de physique des 2 infinis - Irène Joliot-Curie (IJCLab - Univ. Paris-Saclay/CNRS). He is a specialist in the symmetries of elementary particles and is internationally recognised for his experimental contributions, particularly in the study of matter–antimatter asymmetry and in measurements of the properties of the W bosons and the Higgs boson.
Odile Stephan is a lecturer-researcher at the Laboratoire de physique des solides (LPS – Univ. Paris-Saclay/CNRS) and director of the Graduate School of Physics at Université Paris-Saclay. She is a specialist in electron microscopy and spectroscopy. Together with her team, she pushes the limits of these techniques to gain a deeper understanding of the interactions between light, electrons and matter at the nanometre scale. Her work spans a wide range of fields, including nanomaterials physics and nano-optics.
Applied sciences
Bertrand Thirion is director of research at Inria within the Mind team at the NeuroSpin centre and a member of the strategic committee of the Institut DATAIA Paris-Saclay. His research lies at the intersection of statistics, artificial intelligence and software engineering, with applications in neuroscience and medical imaging. His work focuses on the development of advanced statistical methodologies to enhance the neuroscientific and medical applications of brain imaging.