Four ULiège scientists receive 2025 awards from the Royal Academy of Belgium
Faculty of Sciences researchers Marine Banse, Gaël Buldgen, Lionel Clermont and Manuel Cardosa Gutierrez are among the prizewinners of the Class of Sciences of the Royal Academy of Belgium. This recognition underscores the quality of their work, each within their respective field of research.
Marine Banse - Léo Errera Prize (General Biology)
A marine biologist and postdoctoral researcher in the Laboratory of Functional and Evolutionary Morphology, Marine Banse conducts research in acoustic biology. She is notably involved in the European project MOOBYF (Monitoring the Open Ocean BiodiversitY with Fishers), which focuses on biodiversity associated with fish aggregating devices deployed by local fishers. Within this project, Marine Banse leads the bioacoustics component, aiming to assess the extent to which sounds produced by fish in pelagic environments can serve as an information source on the biodiversity of these areas.
The Léo Errera Prize, 38th triennial period (2022 - 2024), is awarded to her for her work on acoustic communication models in Holocentridae.
Gaël Buldgen - Pol and Christiane Swings Prize (Astrophysics)
A stellar astrophysicist and F.R.S.-FNRS Research Associate within the Theoretical Stellar Astrophysics and Asteroseismology (ASTA) group, Gaël Buldgen investigates the internal structure and evolution of the Sun and stars through their oscillations, with the ambition of using stars as genuine laboratories for fundamental physics. His research also seeks to improve stellar evolution models, an essential challenge for determining stellar ages, a parameter crucial for studying exoplanetary systems and for reconstructing the history of the Milky Way in the context of Galactic Archaeology. He also leads at ULiège the preparation teams for the ESA PLATO and Ariel missions (stellar characterisation) and coordinates the Belgian scientific contribution to the candidate mission HAYDN.
The Pol and Christiane Swings Prize, 12th four-year period (2021 - 2024), was awarded to him in recognition of the quality of his work, his contribution to solar asteroseismology, his role in major international collaborations (notably the PLATO mission), and the scientific impact and international recognition of his research.
Lionel Clermont - De Boelpaepe Prize (Scientific Imaging)
A space-optics engineer, Lionel Clermont is a specialist in optics and instrumentation and conducts his research within the STAR Institute (Space sciences, Technologies and Astrophysics Research). Involved in numerous European Space Agency missions, he notably contributed to the Earth-observation instrument Metop-3MI, launched in August 2025. He also developed an innovative method for characterising stray light based on the time of flight of light, successfully applied to the NAC-ERO and FLEX missions. In 2025, he received an ERC Starting Grant, with the ambition of pushing the performance limits of space imagers.
The De Boelpaepe Prize, 49th biennial period (2023 - 2024), recognises his contributions to addressing the stray-light problem, in particular his ultra-fast time-of-flight imaging characterisation method and its implementation in ESA missions.
Manuel Cardosa Gutierrez - Frédéric Swarts Prize (Pure or Industrial Chemistry)
A theoretical chemist, Manuel Cardosa Gutierrez completed his PhD within the Theoretical Physical Chemistry group. His research focuses on mechanochemistry and attochemistry, where external mechanical forces and ultrashort light pulses can be used to control chemical reactions. In mechanochemistry, he demonstrated that an applied force can promote or inhibit the Diels-Alder cycloreversion (furan-maleimide) and shift the reaction pathway towards a stepwise process via diradical intermediates. In attochemistry, he studied how electronic coherences induced by attosecond pulses affect nuclear dynamics, while developing simulation methods for molecular ensembles interacting with such pulses.
The Frédéric Swarts Prize, 43rd biennial period (2023 - 2024), is awarded to him for his work on the cycloreversion of furan/maleimide Diels-Alder adducts.
