On 20 November 2008, Bernard Bigot, high commissioner of the French Atomic Energy Commission, will deliver the 2008 Ullyot Public Affairs Lecture at CHF, "The French Choice: Nuclear Power and Other Energies for a Sustainable Future. " This event is free and open to the public.

About Bernard Bigot
Bernard Bigot is high commissioner of the French Atomic Energy Commission and a professor of chemistry and physics at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon. He is the former auditor for the Higher Studies Institute of the French Defense Ministry.

An alumnus of the École Normale Supérieure de Saint-Cloud, Bigot completed a Ph.D. in physical chemistry at the Université Paris-Sud 11 and a Ph.D. in physics at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie. He was a visiting professor at Purdue University from 1980 to 1981 and associate professor at the École Polytechnique from 1983 to 1996.

For four years he was director of the Catalysis Research Institute at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Lyon-Villeurbanne, and for fifteen years he led the Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon.

He has authored 70 scientific publications in the fields of quantum physical chemistry applied to photochemistry, heterogeneous catalysis, reactivity in liquid phase, and nuclear energy.

Bigot participated in the creation of the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, where he was deputy-director in charge of curriculum (1987–1993), then research director (1998–2000), and director (2000–2003).

While pursuing an academic career, he also worked for the Ministry of Research and Higher Education as head of the scientific mission (1993–1996), managing director of research and technology (1996–1997), and director of cabinet for the Ministry of Research and New Technologies (2002–2003).

Bigot has been president of the International Foundation of the Maison de la Chimie since 2006.

About the Ullyot Public Affairs Lecture
The Ullyot Public Affairs Lecture was established in 1990 to emphasize to the general public the positive role that the chemical and molecular sciences play in our lives. Ullyot Lectures are held annually and are open to the public. Ullyot lecturers are distinguished in their fields, nationally recognized, and able to communicate to a nonscientific audience. Past Ullyot Lecturers

The Ullyot Public Affairs Lecture is jointly sponsored by the Chemical Heritage Foundation, the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of the Sciences, and the Philadelphia Section and Delaware Section of the American Chemical Society.

Past Ullyot Lecturers

Ullyot Scholarship