Denis Maugars Award for young scientists
11 September 2014
At the ICAS 2014 opening ceremony TsAGI Executive Director Sergey Chernyshev announced the launch of the Denis Maugars competition and award.
This decision was reached earlier, on 6 September, at a meeting between managers from the Zhukovsky Central Aero-hydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) and the French aerospace research center ONERA, which took place as part of a joint scientific seminar.
TsAGI and ONERA established the Denis Maugars research project competition for young scientists or researchers in order to attract young people to actively cooperate in international scientific research.
Every two years, groups of young scientists, under the age of 35, from the research centers will be able to show what they are made of and receive financial support from each side. In the competition, work can be presented on priority topics being developed at the institutes. The project results should aim to create competitive aircraft, resolve energy and environmental issues, and generally promote a vision for the further development of aviation in the long term to 2050.
Denis Maugars was President and CEO of the French aerospace lab ONERA (Office National d’Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales) from 2003 for 10 years. He died suddenly in September 2013. Denis Maugars made an enormous contribution to the development of French-Russian cooperation in the field of aeronautics. He was also one of the initiators of the TsAGI-ONERA scientific seminar, which was held for the 13th time this year in St. Petersburg on the eve of ICAS.
“TsAGI and ONERA have long-standing strong scientific connections, largely due to the enormous personal contribution of Denis Maugars. We are linked not only by the scientific seminar, but also by our joint participation in the 6th and 7th European framework programs, the largest of which are the projects HISAC, NACRE, ORINOCO, HEXAFLY-INT, Buterfli and DREAM. Cooperation between TsAGI and ONERA is a wonderful example of the mutually beneficial exchange of the results of fundamental research, which is an incentive for new steps in the search for promising technologies. A scientist, a great strategist and administrator — Denis Maugars placed a lot of significance on the development of international relations and human resources, and particularly on the training of young people. We hope that the award that has been created will not only keep this wonderful person alive in our memories, but continue his endeavors to benefit the development of aeronautical science,” TsAGI Executive Director Professor Sergey Chernyshev said.