Michel Cloitre is a Research Director at the Centre National de la
Recherche Scientifique in France. After earning an engineer diploma in
physics and chemistry from ESPCI, he received a Masters in Statistical
Physics and a PhD from Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris
(1989). He then joined Orsay University to establish a group working on
the fluid dynamics of complex fluids (1991). After a few years, he moved
to a joint research unit between CNRS and the chemical company ATOCHEM,
now Arkema (1996‐2003). This was a challenging and very influential
experience in his career. Afterwards he joined the Soft Matter and
Chemistry laboratory at ESPCI. In 2019, he became the Director of the
Molecular, Macromolecular Chemistry and Materials laboratory where he
pursues his research.
Michel’s research focuses on the relation between the dynamic
microstructure and rheological properties of soft matter systems. He is
particularly known for the advances he made on understanding the effect
of flow on the structure and macroscopic behavior of colloidal glasses,
pastes and emulsions, physical gels, binary associative polymers, and
various polymers with complex architectures. Important applications
studied in collaboration with industrial partners include liquid‐liquid
encapsulation, enhanced oil recovery and the development of
hydrocolloids for water‐borne formulations. He teaches undergraduate and
graduate courses on soft matter, molecular rheology, and material
design. Michel was a coauthor of papers that have won the 2005 and 2014
SOR Publication Awards and the 2019 Rheologica Acta Publication Award.
He also received the Maurice Couette Prize from the French Society of
Rheology in 2010.
Michel is an active member in the rheology community. In 2015, he
chaired the 10th Annual European Rheology Conference held in Nantes. As a
member of the European Society of Rheology since 2013, he has served as
the Secretary of the Society (2016‐2019). Michel has also been a member
of the Society of Rheology since 2005, attending all annual meetings,
and contributing as a Member at Large (2017‐2019). He is a member of the
Editorial Board of the Journal of Rheology.
Award Citation: For developing a fundamental understanding of the
rheology, wall‐slip, aging and flow of concentrated suspensions of soft
particles.
