The Janssen Medal is an astrophysics award presented by the French Academy of Sciences to those who have made advances in this area of science. [1]
The award was founded in 1886, though the first medal was not awarded until a year later. The commission formed to decide on the first recipient of the medal selected the German physicist Gustav Kirchhoff for his work on the science of spectroscopy. However, Kirchhoff died aged 63 on 17 October 1887, a few months before the award would have been announced. Rather than chose a new recipient for the award, the commission announced at the Academy's session of 26 December 1887 that the inaugural medal would be placed on his grave, in "supreme honour of the memory of this great scholar of Heidelberg". [2]
The award had been intended to be biennial, but was awarded in 1888 and again in 1889. A statement in the 1889 volume of Comptes rendus de l'Académie des sciences clarified that the award would be presented annually for the first seven years, and then biennially from 1894 onwards. [3]
This award is distinct from the Prix Jules Janssen (created in 1897), an annual award presented by the French Astronomical Society. Both awards are named for the French astronomer Pierre Janssen (1824–1907) (better known as Jules Janssen). Janssen founded the Academy award, and was a member of the inaugural commission.
The list above is complete up to 2019.
Henri Jacques Chrétien was a French astronomer and an inventor.
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Édouard Benjamin Baillaud was a French astronomer.
Charles Fehrenbach was a French astronomer and member of the French Academy of Sciences. He was director of the Observatoire de Haute Provence (OHP) until 1983. Following the Second World War, he was one of the first astronomers to pioneer the reversion method of using objective prisms to measure the Doppler shift of stars.
Walter Sydney Adams was an American astronomer. He is renowned for his pioneering work in spectroscopy.
Georges-Henri Halphen was a French mathematician. He was known for his work in geometry, particularly in enumerative geometry and the singularity theory of algebraic curves, in algebraic geometry. He also worked on invariant theory and projective differential geometry.
Ferdinand Jules Quénisset (1872–1951) was a French astronomer who specialized in astrophotography.
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Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, or simply Comptes rendus, is a French scientific journal that has been published since 1835. It is the proceedings of the French Academy of Sciences. It is currently split into seven sections, published on behalf of the Academy by Elsevier: Mathématique, Mécanique, Physique, Géoscience, Palévol, Chimie, and Biologies.
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The Poncelet Prize is awarded by the French Academy of Sciences. The prize was established in 1868 by the widow of General Jean-Victor Poncelet for the advancement of the sciences. It was in the amount of 2,000 francs, mostly for the work in applied mathematics. The precise wording of the announcement by the academy varied from year to year and required the work be "in mechanics", or "for work contributing to the progress of pure or applied mathematics", or simply "in applied mathematics", and sometimes included condition that the work must be "done during the ten years preceding the award."
Georges Julien Giraud was a French mathematician, working in potential theory, partial differential equations, singular integrals and singular integral equations: he is mainly known for his solution of the regular oblique derivative problem and also for his extension to n–dimensional singular integral equations of the concept of symbol of a singular integral, previously introduced by Solomon Mikhlin.
The Société astronomique de France, the French astronomical society, is a non-profit association in the public interest organized under French law. Founded by astronomer Camille Flammarion in 1887, its purpose is to promote the development and practice of astronomy.
The Prix Jules Janssen is the highest award of the Société astronomique de France (SAF), the French astronomical society.
The Lalande Prize was an award for scientific advances in astronomy, given from 1802 until 1970 by the French Academy of Sciences.
The Valz Prize(Prix Valz) was awarded by the French Academy of Sciences, from 1877 through 1970, to honor advances in astronomy.
Jean Delhaye (1921–2001) was a French astronomer and director of astronomical research at several institutes.