Abstract
Academic scientific research in France is based around 70 universities, each with numerous departments, sites and branches, as well as around major research organisations. These include not only the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), recognised as the second most important research institution in the world (Scimago Institutions Rankings), but also the Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives (CEA) and the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM). In this context, and given the multidisciplinary nature of crystallography, it would appear complex, if not impossible, to draw up a complete and exhaustive overview of the activity of this science in France. This is not the purpose of this article. Nor is it the purpose of this article to relate the importance of the past activities of French researchers in crystallography. We will therefore not talk about Auguste Bravais, Georges Friedel, René Just Haüy or Charles Mauguin, nor about Louis Pasteur or the French crystallographers who were President of the IUCr such as André Guinier, Jean Wyart and André Authier. That is another story. The purpose of this opus is to illustrate the current status and dynamics of crystallography in France by focusing on a few major facts. By definition, the result is partial and probably also unintentionally biased. May the reader excuse us for this. However, despite the inherent flaws of the exercise, an initial mapping of our science in France is sketched out and testifies to a certain dynamism and a swarming of ideas and results, fruits of the hard work of so many colleagues. The purpose of this article is to pay tribute to them as France is preparing to host major crystallographic events in 2022: the 3rd European School and the 7th European Conference on Crystal Growth, July 2022, Paris; the 23rd General Meeting of the International Mineralogical Association, July 2022, Lyon; and the 33rd European Crystallography Meeting, August 2022, Versailles.