“Invited Papers”: a new and promising oppportunity within the Bulletin de la Société Royale des Sciences de Liège
1Since 1932 the Bulletin de la Société Royale des Sciences de Liège (BSRSL) has been publishing research papers and conference proceedings. The scope of the journal covers all fields of Natural Sciences as well as some aspects of applied Sciences.
2In 2006, the Bulletin started a new life in an electronic form exclusively. The journal is hosted on the PoPups platform established by the University of Liege libraries and which promotes free of charge publication in Open Access.
3Recently the SRSL board has decided to include a new kind of contribution called “Invited Papers”. According to the topics of the Bulletin the goal is to welcome and publish high-level peer reviewed papers not only relating on research activities of selected renowned teams but to be also a forum for the presentation of relevant scientific reviews, reflections and opinions reflecting the state-of-the art on specific themes. The “Invited Papers” section also allows young researchers to describe the background, the goal and the modalities of their work as a tutorial review.
4The first two invited papers presented herein have been written by the two laureates of the Annual Prize 2020 of the Société Royale des Sciences de Liège: Mrs Elsa DUCROT (PhD Student – Astrobiology Research Unit - University of Liege, Belgium) and Dr Alexis DARRAS (Post-doc - Saarland University – Germany). Their publications are entitled: “A brief history of the TRAPPIST-1 System” and “Evaporation of superparamagnetic colloids” respectively.
Elsa Ducrot (photo credit: Massimo Sandal)
5Mrs Elsa Ducrot (26) is a French PhD student in exoplanetology (Supervisor: Prof. Michaël Gillon) at the University of Liège. She studied optics and photonics at the Institut d’Optique Graduade School (IOGS). In addition to her engineering degree at IOGS she earned a MSc in astrophysics from Imperial College of London (UK). Mrs Ducrot is interested in terrestrial planets orbiting ultra-cool stars. She is part of the SPECULOOS (Search for habitable Planets EClipsing ULtra-cOOl Stars) project and dedicates a great part of her time to the study of the TRAPPIST-1 system. As part of SPECULOOS, she is taking care of the observational strategy and scheduling optimization of the extensive SPECULOOS target list on the six semi-robotic telescopes. She also led the analysis of more than 1000 hours observation of the TRAPPIST-1 system with the Spitzer Space Telescope
Alexis Darras
6Dr. Alexis Darras (28) is a Belgian research assistant (Post-Doc) in DGF research Unit FOR 2688 - Saarland University – Germany. Dr. Darras is a specialist of colloidal self-assemblies. He earned a Bachelor (2013) and then a Master (2015) degree in Physics from the University of Liège where, as Research Fellow of the “Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique” he obtained a PhD in Science, Physics. Dr. Darras authored 12 peer reviewed papers and is the laureate of several scientific prizes: Dr.Eduard-Martin Prize 2020 Saarland University – Laureate MT180 and public award of the international final (2017) – Physics Prize for Master Students 2015 (University of Liège) and Laureate 2009 of the yearly national contest of the scientific youth of Belgium. Today Dr. Darras is studying how colloidal models can be apply to the self#organization and flow behaviors of red blood cells.
7The Editors of the Bulletin and the SRSL Committee are proud to welcome these two promising scientists and wish the readers interesting discoveries...
8Georges Lognay, Scientific Editor
9Jacques Delwiche, Editor
10Michaël Debecker, Past President (2020)
11Bénédicte Vertruyen, President (2021)
12Guy Munhoven, Vice-President
13Guy Maghuin-Rogister, General secretary
14Jean Schmets, Treasurer