International Solvay Institutes

 

Solvay Chairs

 

The International Solvay chairs enable the Solvay Institutes to invite in Brussels an eminent scientist for a period of one to two months in order to give lectures on her or his work to researchers in the corresponding field. The chair program starts with an inaugural lecture, the target of which is a broad audience.


The International Solvay Chair in Physics was created in 2006 with the enthusiastic and efficient support of Jacques Solvay who was then the President of the Solvay Institutes. After his death, the Board of Directors of the International Solvay Institutes decided to rename the chair after him.


Thanks to the support of the Solvay company, the program was extended to Chemistry in 2008. In 2024, after the split of the original Solvay company into two separate entities, the chemistry chair program was taken over by the Syensqo company, which now generously provides its funding. The chemistry chair was renamed "Syensqo chair in chemistry by the International Solvay Institutes", or "Syensqo chair in chemistry" for short

 


Jacques Solvay International Chairs in Physics

- 2025 Solvay Professor: Vyacheslav Rychkov
(IHES, Bures-sur-Yvette, France)

 

Inaugural lecture on 25 March 2025 (Solvay Room)

Click here to view abstract

 

Second lecture on 15 April (Solvay Room)

Third lecture on 16 April (Solvay Room)

Fourth lecture on 17 April (Solvay Room)

Click here to view abstract

 

Lecture on 22 April (UGent)

 

Seminar on "Tensor networks with an eye towards Renormalization Group" on 19 May

11:30-12:30 and 14:00-15:00

(ULB - Campus Plaine - Building NO)

 

 

- 2026 Solvay Professor: Ignacio Cirac

(Max Planck Insititute of Quantum Optics, Germany)

 

- 2027 Solvay Professor: Maxim Pospelov

(University of Minnesota, USA)

 

 

Chairs in Biolgogy

- 2025 Solvay Professor: Benjamin Simons
(Cambridge University, UK)

Syensqo Chairs in Chemistry by
the International Solvay Institutes

- 2025 Solvay Professor: Laura Gagliardi 

(University of Chicago)

 

Inaugural lecture on 28 January 2025

Second lecture on 18 February 2025

Third lecture on 2 September 2025

Fourth lecture on 28 October 2025

 

- 2026 Solvay Professor: Roberta Sessoli

(Florence University, Italy)

 

- 2027 Solvay Professor: Moungi Bawendi

(MIT, USA)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PAST INTERNATIONAL CHAIRS

Jacques Solvay International Chairs in Physics

2006: Ludwig Faddeev, Saint-Petersburg (Russia)

2007: Michael Berry, Bristol (UK)

2008: David Gross, 2004 Nobel Laureate in

Physics, Santa Barbara (USA)

2009: Valery Rubakov, Moscow (Russia)

2010: Serge Haroche, 2012 Nobel Laureate

in Physics, Paris (France)

2011: Nathan Seiberg, Princeton (USA)

2012: Jan Zaanen, Leiden (The Netherlands)

2013: Gian Giudice, CERN (Switzerland)

2014: Viatcheslav Mukhanov, LMU (Germany)

2015: Peter Zoller, Innsbruck (Austria)

2016: Dam Thanh Son, Chicago (USA)

2017: Uri Alon, Weizmann Inst. of Science (Israel)

2018: Bernard Derrida, Collège de France (France)

2019: Gary GibbonsDAMTP, U. of Cambridge (UK)

2020: Roger Blandford, Stanford University (USA)

2021: Jean Dalibard, ENS & Collège de France

2022: Juna Kollmeier, Canadian Institute for Theoratical Astrophysics, Toronto (Canada)

2023: Subir Sachdev, Harvard University (USA)

2024: Samaya Nissanke (The Netherlands)

 

 

 

2011 Solvay Centenary Chair

David Gross - 2004 Nobel Laureate in Physics
Santa Barbara (USA)

International Solvay Chairs in Chemistry

2008: Richard Saykally, Berkeley (USA)

2009: Alexander Mikhailov, Berlin (Germany)

2010: Weitao Yang, Durham (USA)

2011: Jean-Luc Brédas, Atlanta (USA)

2012: Viola Vogel, Zurich (Switzerland)

2013: Egbert Meijer, Eindhoven (The Netherlands)

2014: Richard Royce Schrock, 2005 Nobel
Laureate in Chemistry, MIT (USA)

2015: Andreas Manz (Saarbrücken, Germany)

2016: Raymond Kapral, Toronto (Canada)

2017: Richard Henderson, 2017 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, Cambridge (UK)

2018: Ben Feringa, 2016 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, U. of Groningen (The Netherlands)

2019: Gernot Frenking, Philipps-U. Marburg, (Germany)

2020: Joanna Aizenberg (Harvard University, USA)

2021: Omar Yaghi (Berkeley UC, USA)

2022: Daniel Jacob (Harvard University, USA)

2023: Ehud Gazit (Tel-Aviv University, Israel)

2024: Markus Antonietti (Max Planck Inst., Potsdam, Germany)