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Materials Research in France: A Short-lived National Initiative (1982–1994)

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Abstract

This paper describes the French initiative in materials research against both a national and an international background, in an attempt to disentangle the local circumstances, which prompted this governmental initiative, and to characterize the specific profile of materials research in France. In presenting a biography of the interdisciplinary program in materials research (PIRMAT), we argue that: i) the PIRMAT denotes a failure of the French science policy in materials research; ii) the leadership of the CNRS led to a specific style of research, quite different from the engineering approach of Materials Science and Engineering, and characteristic of a French style in materials research.

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Notes

  1. See, for instance, Cottrel (2000). For a British view, see Cahn (2001). For a critical perspective on the centre-periphery perspective on materials research, see Bensaude-Vincent and Hessenbruch (2004).

  2. More information about the history of the CNRS in Picard (1990), Guthleben (2009), and in La Revue pour l’Histoire du CNRS, esp. N°1 (1999): "Le CNRS au temps de Charles de Gaulle: 1958-1969", N°2 (2000): "Les premiers laboratoires du CNRS", N°11 (2004): "Le CNRS au sein du dispositif de recherche français: ses relations avec d’autres organismes". For a broader view of the organization of the French research system, see Shinn (1980, 1994).

  3. From about 350 researchers in 1945 to about 1,000 in the 1960s and 10,000 in the 1980s (Guthleben 2009, p. 371).

  4. Interviews of B. Wuensch, Jan. 9, 2001, of M. Dresselhauss, Oct. 25, 2001, and of R. Cahn, Dec. 6, 2000, by B. Bensaude-Vincent and A. Hessenbruch. See all these interviews on the website http://www.sho.espci.fr/ (under construction). See also DiSalvo (1990).

  5. The 1981 “materials science” call for tenders, financed with FF 4.3 million from the CNRS and FF 3 million from the DGRST, was also focused on “random macroscopic media” (or “MIAM” for Milieux aléatoires macroscopiques).

  6. 22 laboratories from the Paris area, 3 from Lyon, Marseille, Strasbourg, Poitiers, Caen and Montpellier, and 2 from Lille, Grenoble, Nancy, Bordeaux and Toulouse.

  7. National Academy of Sciences (1975), Vol. I, Chap. 1. The same report defined MSE: “Materials science and engineering is concerned with the generation and application of knowledge relating to composition, structure, and processing of materials to their properties and uses” (Vol. I, Chap. 2, p. 2).

  8. Jacques Balazard was the technical director of the Aérospatiale, Jérôme Bédier was in charge of the rubber and plastic division at the Ministry of industry, Guy Bessonnat belonged to a research agency of the army (DRET), Jacques Boileau to the national explosives manufacture (SNPE), Jean Hanus came from the CNRS, Jean Jerphagnon from the CNET (national center for research on telecommunications), Gilles Pomey from the materials department of the École des mines de Paris, and Pierre-François Gobin, rapporteur of the commission, from the materials department of the Ministry of research and technology.

  9. J.P. Causse, interview with B. Bensaude-Vincent, Mar. 31, 2009. All quotations of French speakers are our translations.

  10. “Les Matériaux. Synthèse des propositions du rapport remis à M. Jean-Pierre Chevènement, ministre de la recherche et de l’industrie”, Sep. 1982, CNRS archives 010035-15. This synthesis adopted a conventional definition of materials as “a set of solids (or fluids) for the design of objects used by man” (p. 1).

  11. In the 1980s, US MSE courses and textbooks recommended a specific method for designing materials, based on four parameters: structure, properties, performances and processes. Changes made in any of the four parameters could impact on the balance of the whole system and require a re-thinking of the whole device.

  12. “Les Matériaux. Synthèse…” op. cit., p. 3.

  13. “CNRS - Schéma directeur du PIRMAT 1982”, CNRS archives 000029-31, p. 2.

  14. J. Hanus, interview with B. Bensaude-Vincent, May 16, 2007.

  15. “Décision de création du PIRMAT”, Mar. 8, 1982, CNRS archives 850180-2.

  16. Le Courrier du CNRS, n° 52-53, Sep-Nov 1983, p. 7.

  17. Ibid. p. 12: “We shall call ‘materials’ solid bodies (exceptionally, condensed fluids), crystallized or not, homogeneous or made of more or less complex aggregates. Basic properties of materials deal with ‘structure’, a term that covers many scales: electronic, atomic, or polyatomic (crystalline aggregates, phases)”.

  18. Ibid. p. 18-20.

  19. “CNRS - Schéma directeur du PIRMAT 1982”, CNRS archives 000029-31, p. 1.

  20. Le Courrier du CNRS, n° 52-53, Sep-Nov 1983, p. 11.

  21. “CNRS - Schéma directeur du PIRMAT 1982”, op. cit., p. 3.

  22. The PIRMAT selection of transversal topics included: plasticity of materials, surfaces and interfaces, and influence of gravity on the transport properties of fluids in contact with materials.

  23. List of participants to the Colloque national matériaux, 1984, CNRS archives 900021-17.

  24. “Schéma prospectif, 20 thèmes stratégiques pour le CNRS”, Apr. 1985, CNRS archives’ documentary fund, p. 15-17.

  25. A. Percheron-Guégan, interview with E. Bertrand, Apr. 1, 2010.

  26. Letter from J. Hanus to S. Feneuille, Sep. 10, 1986, CNRS archives 000029-33.

  27. J. Hanus, letter to F. Kourilsky, Nov. 14, 1989, CNRS archives 000029-35.

  28. “Rapport d’audit sur le PIRMAT”, Jan. 1990, CNRS archives 010035-14.

  29. G. Beck, interview with E. Bertrand, Feb. 19, 2010.

  30. G. Beck, interview with B. Bensaude-Vincent, Jan. 18, 1996.

  31. G. Beck, interview with E. Bertrand, Feb. 19, 2010.

  32. Ibid.

  33. J-.P. Causse, interview with B. Bensaude-Vincent, Mar. 31, 2009.

  34. In order to make comparisons between different years without being misled by the effects of inflation, we chose to convert all the figures into French Francs of 1990. We thus distinguish between million of real French Francs (“real MFF”) and million of French Francs of 1990 (“M 1990FF”).

  35. “Rapport d’audit sur le PIRMAT”, Jan. 1990, CNRS archives 010035-14.

  36. Report of the PIRMAT program committee meeting of June 17, 1993, CNRS archives 010035-14.

  37. For instance, the CNRS/Saint-Gobain joint laboratory, created in January 1990.

  38. The term “shareholder” came in use in Dec. 1, 1993, when one of the department directors complained that the 1994 budget did not “respect the shareholding originally decided for the program (physics 30 %, engineering sciences 25 %, chemistry 45 %)”. Report of the PIRMAT steering committee meeting of Dec. 1, 1993, CNRS archives 010035-14.

  39. J. Friedel, personal communication to B. Bensaude-Vincent, Nov. 18, 2001.

  40. Their errors of prospective were: the priority to “all-ceramics engine” which never worked, while overlooking the increase of ceramics in housing equipments. In electronics, they had invested in As-Ga semi-conductors, which had no industrial future. Like most people around the world they had not predicted high-temperature superconductivity, and too much money had been invested in the race after the Nobel Prize, in 1986.

  41. J-.P. Causse, letter to H. Curien, minister of research and technology, Mar. 5, 1991.

  42. J-.P. Causse, interview with B. Bensaude-Vincent, Mar. 31, 2009.

  43. J. Hanus, interview with B. Bensaude-Vincent, May 16, 2007.

  44. Ibid.

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  1. Physico-chimie des Electrolytes, Colloïdes, et Sciences Analytiques (PECSA), UMR 7195, UPMC, CNRS, ESPCI ParisTech, Université Paris 6 Pierre et Marie Curie, case courrier 51, 4 place Jussieu, 75252, Paris cedex 05, France

    Emanuel Bertrand

  2. Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne/IUF, Centre d’Etudes des Techniques, des Connaissances et des Pratiques (CETCOPRA), 17 rue de la Sorbonne, 75231, Paris cedex 05, France

    Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent

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Bertrand, E., Bensaude-Vincent, B. Materials Research in France: A Short-lived National Initiative (1982–1994). Minerva 49, 191–214 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-011-9168-0

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