Francqui Chair 2025-2026 for Frédéric Merkt
Since 1933, the Belgian Francqui Chairs aims to promote cooperation between universities and highlight academic excellence. This year,? Frédéric Merkt, Professor of Physical Chemistry at D-CHAB has been invited to give the?Francqui Chairs lecture series and conferences encouraging scientific exchange and fostering meetings between researchers.
The Francqui Chair is one of the most important initiatives of the Foundation Francqui-Stichting. This Chair promotes cooperation among universities, primarily in Belgium. This year, the chair is connected to the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the quantum theory.
“My group has very recently carried out new measurements of the ionization energies of the hydrogen and helium atoms at extreme precision. So the 100 years celebration of the quantum theory is an ideal platform to present these new results and show how they compare with the earliest predictions by the quantum theory 100 years ago”, remarks Frédéric Merkt. “This recognition makes me very happy. Two of my previous coworkers are professors at UC Louvain, and I was very touched that they thought of me for this chair.”
The Francqui Chair consists of several lectures, including an inaugural lecture open to the public, which serves as an occasion to exchange and establish contacts in the discipline, as Merkt recounts: “I was in Louvain-La-Neuve earlier this week to give the inaugural lecture and had the opportunity to visit all research groups working in atomic and molecular physics. The first discussions with the faculty members and with the students turned out to be extremely stimulating. I am convinced that new ideas and scientific directions will emerge in the realm of the Francqui chair.”
Frédéric Merkt has been Professor at D-CHAb since 2011. His main research interests are in molecular spectroscopy, molecular optics, cold chemistry and precision tests of fundamental physical theories. He received several awards and two ERC advanced grants (2008, 2017). He is a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the European Physical Society and of Optica.
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