This recognition honors more than fifteen years of research dedicated to waves and vibrations, which are now being applied to projects conducted at the PIMM Laboratory.
Each year, the Institut universitaire de France (IUF) honors faculty members from all disciplines for the excellence of their scientific work. This appointment comes with a grant of 15,000 euros per year and a reduction in teaching load, allowing the recipients to devote more time to their research for five years. Starting in October, Marc Rébillat, an associate professor at the PIMM laboratory, will join the junior members ofthe IUF as a holder of a fundamental chair.
Time to delve deeper into our already numerous projects
The reduction in teaching load that comes with this distinction will allow Marc Rébillat to devote more time to his research. “I’m fortunate to have many funded projects. My appointment to the IUF will give me the time to work in depth on methodologies , ” he notes.
Among these projects is SMATSH, carried out in partnership with Naval Group. Led in the laboratory by Louka Jammes’s thesis work, this project focuses on the mechanical performance of the structures that make up the hulls of military ships. “These materials are subjected to specific stresses: not only is the structure curved, but we must also take into account two very different environments—water and the interior of the ship,” explains Marc Rébillat.
Another project, INPACT, developed in collaboration with Ph.D. student Emmanuel Banimba, explores new approaches to monitoring and characterizing structures using guided waves and advanced data processing methods.
In addition to this work, there is a partnership with Air Liquide focused on the design and optimization of materials used in gas cylinders. Led by Ph.D. student Orlando Vargas, this project aims to better understand how these materials behave under demanding operating conditions.
The Strength of a Multidisciplinary Ecosystem
This diversity of research topics is made possible by the scientific depth of the PIMM laboratory: “I’m not a specialist in composite materials, polymers, or even machine learning. It’s wonderful to be able to rely on my colleagues,” emphasizes Marc Rébillat. He specifically mentions Nazih Mechbal, Éric Monteiro, Fakhreddine Ababsa, Francisco Chinesta, Nicolas Hascoët, Beatriz Moya, Mikhail Guskov, Sébastien Roland, Pierre Margerit, Dimitri Goutaudier, Juan-Pablo Marquez, Laurent Berthe, as well as the partner teams at I2M and the CNRS.
“This appointment to the IUF is an individual one, but it is made possible by the laboratory’s research ecosystem, within which we collaborate extensively,” he concludes.
A journey guided by sound waves and vibrations
Marc Rébillat, a professor of applied physics at the École normale supérieure de Cachan, has built a scientific career centered on waves and vibrations. He began with a dissertation in acoustics focused on spatialized sound, before completing a postdoctoral fellowship on the effects of sound in neuroscience.
Since joining the Arts et Métiers in 2012, he has been conducting research at the intersection of mechanics and structural dynamics, focusing in particular on wave-based smart structures and physics-informed artificial intelligence methods. “These may be different fields, but the tools used are similar , ” he explains.
