Michel Blanc

The 2004 Jean Dominique Cassini Medal & Honorary Membership is awarded to Michel Blanc for his outstanding work on the magnetospheres of the Earth and of giant planets of the solar system, and his role in the preparation of the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan.

Michel Blanc dedicated the early years of his scientific career to the Earth magnetosphere and ionosphere, first with models of electric field systems, then with global models of the magnetosperic convection and of radiation belts. Since the early 1990’s, he has obtained important new results on planetary magnetospheres, in particular on plasma transport and radiation belts in the highly axisymetric environment of Saturn. He has played an outstanding role in the preparation of the Cassini / Huygens mission due to arrive in June 2004 in the system of Saturn, being selected as an Interdisciplinary Scientist. He is leading the efforts for structuring the planetary science community in Europe in the context of the major science missions of ESA.

With his remarkable scientific record in Solar Terrestrial physics and planetary science and his strong role in coordinating the European scientific community, Michel Blanc deserves to open the list of recipients of the Cassini medal of the European Geosciences Union.