Jean-François Lutz, winner of the Langevin Prize 2024

On October 15th, the French Academy of Sciences awarded the Langevin Prize to Jean-François Lutz, for his work on “informational” polymers. Created in 1945 on the initiative of French physicist Paul Langevin, as a tribute to the memory of French scientists murdered by the Nazis in 1940-1945, this prize rewards work in the disciplines that these scientists enriched. Jean-François Lutz's research focuses on synthetic polymers which, like natural macromolecules such as DNA or proteins, contain ordered sequences of monomers and can therefore store information. These new polymers are being applied in fields such as data storage, material traceability and anti-counterfeiting. This prize is awarded every four years in the field of chemistry.