Prof. Claudine Hermann

Claudine Hermann was a Professor of Physics at the Ecole Polytechnique, the most renowned French engineering school. Her research domain is Optics of solids. She is an alumna of Ecole Normale Supérieure de Jeunes Filles and her PhD (1976) is in Solid state physics. She was the first woman ever appointed Professor at Ecole Polytechnique in 1992. Since then, in addition to her activities in physics, she has been studying the situation of women scientists in Western Europe and promoting science for girls, through papers and conferences, in France and abroad. She has worked for many years in a team with the late Huguette Delavault, a retired Mathematics Professor at Paris University. Claudine Hermann was a member of the expert group that produced the so called ‘ETAN report’ (‘Science policies in the European Union: Promoting excellence through mainstreaming gender equality’) of the Directorate General Research of the European Commission on women in research in academia in Western Europe (2000). She has been one of the two French members of the group of civil servants on Women and Science at DG Research (Helsinki group) from 1999 until 2006. She is a co-founder and the first president of the association Femmes & Sciences (French Women and Science association), was vice president of European Platform of Women Scientists (EPWS) (2009-2017) and since 2017 is elected president of this prestigious European women scientist’s organization. Prof. Claudine Hermann will moderate the Plenary Discussion “European Network of Organizations Performing Physics Research: a Platform for Exchange of Experience and Creation of Consensus on Implementation of Gender Equality”.