The editor-in-chief of Researchquarterly published by the press group also publishing Science and Futurewas distinguished on November 26, 2024 by the Jean-Perrin 2023 prize awarded by the French Physical Society (SFP). The jury praised Philippe Pajot as a scientific journalist “d’exception” et “a man of incomparable generosity and finesse of spirit, with an ambitious objective: to decompartmentalize science to infuse it into all strata of society”.
An astrophysicist by training, Philippe Pajot began his career with a thesis at the CEA on “the acceleration of cosmic rays”. But rather than pursue an academic career, he chose to become a science journalist. He starts at the magazine For Sciencethen carried by a small team where “we shared all the tasks”he remembers, describing this period as foundational for his vocation.
Read alsoQuarterly Research: “Geometries and shapes”, available from newsagents and bookstores
“Almost every title that exists”
After a decade in this title, he embarked on a freelance career, collaborating “almost every title that exists”. “Some months, I had up to ten employers”he says with amusement. He thus writes articles in reference publications such as Science and Life, Junior Science and Life, I’m interested, The World and, of course, Research.
The memory of Azar. Disappeared in 2022, the journalist Azar Khalatbari, who had been head of the Fundamental and Earth Sciences department at Sciences and Future, received the Jean-Perrin prize in 2019.
About ten years ago, he officially joined Researchfirst as head of news, then as editor-in-chief. Under his direction, the quarterly, designed as a “mook” (hybrid between a magazine and a book), established itself on newsstands and bookstores, with each issue selling more than 10,000 copies.
During the award ceremony, a video intervention by the former Minister of Research Sylvie Retailleau (herself a physicist) thanked Philippe Pajot “for strong links” that he maintains “with researchers, teacher-researchers and engineers from all our laboratories“. CNRS physicist Hélène Fischer, who presented him with the distinction, praised “a man who tirelessly builds bridges and resolves misunderstandings between worlds that often struggle to speak to each other, that of journalists, scientists, decision-makers, the general public”. For its part, the editorial staff of Sciences and the Future – Research is delighted to see celebrated a colleague and friend, an outstanding journalist and, less well known, an amateur baritone.
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