Bienvenue sur l'Institut Polytechnique de Paris

Congratulations to Ambre Ghisalberti, who successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled “Statistical Study of the Location of Magnetic Reconnection at the Magnetopause.” Abstract Magnetic reconnection constitutes the primary coupling mechanism between the Earth's magnetosphere and the solar wind, driving the formation of the boundary layer between these two plasmas. The efficiency of this phenomenon depends heavily on the position of the X-line, where...

Abstract The low-latitude boundary layer (LLBL) is a key region for plasma exchange between the magnetosheath and the magnetosphere. While Earth’s LLBL has been studied extensively, earlier studies at Mercury focused mainly on the dayside. BepiColombo’s third Mercury flyby revealed ion energy dispersion in the dusk-side LLBL, but the layer’s global distribution and internal structure remained poorly understood. Using MESSENGER magnetic-field and ion...

Gwendal Hénaff, who completed his PhD at the Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas (LPP), is a 2026 i-PhD laureate with his 3DCAM Sensors project. He also received the Grand Prix Souveraineté, recognizing the strategic potential of a technology developed at the LPP to improve the characterization of the space environment. Gwendal Hénaff defended his PhD at the LPP in 2024 under the supervision of Matthieu Berthomier, CNRS researcher at the LPP. His work...