New Year’s promotion highlights science

The January 1 civil elevation of the Legion of Honor marks—with the equality of men and women, as has been the norm since 2007—340 figures for them. “Great advantages in serving the country”. The list is posted on Official Gazette Of the three ranks in the order, 280 are knights, 43 officers, and 12 captains, while five have been promoted to two ranks, four as senior officers, and one as a Grand Cross.

This highest distinction, held by only 67 members, goes to biologist Etienne-Emile Beaulieu, professor emeritus at the Collège de France and former president of the Academy of Sciences, known for the development of abortion pills but also for his research. illness.

Overall, this class for 2023 puts science in the spotlight. Physicist and chemist Marie-Paule Bellini, a world-renowned specialist in the field of nanotechnology, and Albert Wert, winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of giant magnetoresistance, are elevated to the rank of senior officers. Alain Aspect, who won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work in quantum mechanics, has become a leader.

Without waiting for the eight-year regulatory deadline, astronaut Thomas Pesquet was promoted to officer “exceptional service”including his command of the International Space Station in 2022.

The head of the National Center for Space Studies (Cnes), Philippe Baptiste, and mathematician Emmanuel Olmo, director of the Institute for Advanced Scientific Studies, were named knights. The humanities are also welcomed with geographer and former diplomat Michel Foucher, historian and sociologist in the media. Isabelle Ferrat Masson and archaeologist Michel Laure.

Athletes, associations and senior civil servants

Other notable distinctions: tributes, as jockeys, to former high-level athletes, athlete Stéphane Diagana, the first French world champion in the 400m hurdles in 1997, and tennis player Yannick Noah, winner of Roland Garros in 1983 and the only Frenchman to date to win a Grand Slam tournament in the open era.

In the economic, social and health field, we can note the privileges granted to Patricia Barbezet, president of the investment company Témaris, who has been elevated to the rank of senior officer; to Martine Brousse, president of La Voix de l’enfant, and Véronique Morali, president of Force femmes, both promoted to commanders; To Catherine Gibbin, President of Médecins du Monde, Christian Grabin, Director of the Tremblin Association for the Disabled, and also to Eric Chenot, President of Mutualité française and Bernard Street, President of Adapted Companies and Associations, who became knights.

Among the state employees, Prefect Marc Guillaume was promoted to commander, and Jean-Louis Perrier, president of the Special Criminal Tribunal during the trial of the November 13 attacks, was decorated.

Former ministers and relatives of Emmanuel Macron

If ministers and parliamentarians cannot be named in their positions, the class of 2023 has a large number of relatives of Emmanuel Macron, including the mayor of Pau and the head of the interior ministry François Bayrou who became an officer, but also the former president of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand, and the former interior minister, Christophe Castaner, two of the president’s faithfuls who took a beating during the 2022 legislative elections, are both knights.

We will also notice “walkers” in the list of promoted ex-ministers – Nicole Belloubet (justice), Emmanuel Warjon (housing), Muriel Pinicaud (labor), Frédéric Vidal (higher education) – or new congregations such as Renaud Musilaire, President of the Provence-Alpes region Cote d’Azur Go from LR to Renaissance.

The opposition has not been forgotten, on the right, with ex-ministers Michel Alliot-Marie, Nicole Amelin and Pierre Mihaignery, and on the left the communist Marie-Georges Bouvet and the socialist Hélène Joffroy, the current mayor of Volks-en-Villenne. , who stood out for his opposition to his party’s rapprochement with La Frances.

Two figures of the Catholic Church

In the world of arts and culture, the conductor Jean-Claude Casades rises to the rank of chief officer. Writer Patrick Modiano, 2014 Nobel Prize Laureate for Literature, has been promoted to Commander; Author and director Masha Makif, with the rank of officer. Musician Louis Chedid, cartoonist Enki Bilal and journalist Pierre Pont became Farasan.

Finally, two distinguished figures in the church are Father André-Pierre Grimaud, former chaplain at the Maison d’éducation de la Légion d’honneur in Saint-Denis and Near pole Vincent Bolloret ; And the Bishop David MacaireArchbishop of Saint-Pierre and Fort-de-France in Martinique.

Newly elected or promoted, all of whom are part of the 0.1% of the population—about 79,000 people—can claim to wear France’s highest honour.