Inventaire


Site en français

Structure of Matter and Science of the Universe


What are matter, space and time? What are the fundamental forces of nature? Where does our universe come from? How is it going to evolve? How do we explain the emergence of complex systems from simple constituents? A large number of ULB researchers are very active in different fields of science - both theoretical and experimental, as mathematical physics and string theory, quantum gravity, theoretical and experimental particle physics, astroparticle physics, cosmology, astrophysics and exoplanet research, nuclear physics, theoretical chemistry, quantum chemistry, experimental spectroscopy, complex systems and non-linear processes. All this work is fully in line with the ULB's strong tradition of theoretical research going back to Théophile De Donder (1872- 1957), and upheld by Ilya Prigogine (1917-2003), winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1977, François Englert (born in 1932), Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013 and Robert Brout (1928-2011), winners of the Wolf Prize in 2004 or, on a more recent note, Marc Henneaux and Pierre Gaspard, holders of the Francqui Prize. Much of this research is conducted in dialogue with other disciplines, whether fundamental or applied: mathematics and computer science, theoretical biology, engineering, materials science, medical imaging, electronics, instrumentation, etc. Among the top achievements in the experimental field we need to highlight the contribution by Jean Jeener (born in 1931) to two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance, an invention behind today's medical imaging.