The astrophysicist Françoise Combes awarded the CNRS 2020 Gold Medal

The astrophysicist Françoise Combes, awarded the 2020 CNRS Gold Medal, seen here at the Paris Observatory - PSL. Frédérique PLAS / LERMA / CNRS Photothèque - This year, the CNRS Gold Medal, one of France's most prestigious scientific distinctions, has been awarded to the astrophysicist Françoise Combes. As a specialist in the dynamics of galaxies, she has uncovered a wide range of phenomena that explain their formation and evolution. Now a professor at the Collège de France, she continues to carry out research at the Laboratoire d'Etudes du Rayonnement et de la Matière en Astrophysique et Atmosphères (LERMA: Observatoire de Paris - PSL/CNRS/Sorbonne Université/Université de Cergy-Pontoise). Françoise Combes' research focuses in general on the formation and evolution of galaxies, their dynamics and structure, and the interactions between them, using both direct observation and numerical simulations. Her work has enabled us to understand the relationship between the shapes of galaxies and their histories, and thus comprehend the various stages in the growth of galaxies throughout the history of the Universe. She has also shown that the super-massive black holes in the centres of galaxies cause star formation to slow down within them.