Caroline Cohen

After a short passage through engineering school, Caroline quickly realizes that engineering is not meant for her. Her wish: to become a professor. She entered Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan and passed successfully the aggregation of Physical Sciences. But a game changing fact, during a simple volleyball match, will then change the course of his career.

She noted with surprise the uncertain trajectory of the "floating ball", and can not help but try to understand this phenomenon. She did an internship and a PhD on the theme of sports physics at the Ecole Polytechnique where, in addition to the trajectories of balls, she investigated the link between the dynamic movement and the microscopic functioning of muscles. During her post-doctorate, Caroline, attracted by visual experiments, looked at erosion and geomorphology phenomena.

Using an ordinary material, in this case caramel, she succeeded in creating a model experiment that allows to understand the patterns that appear on the surface of icebergs. But sports physics is never far away. Back at Ecole polytechnique, she became an assistant professor and combined her two passions: research and teaching. Today, her research interests include cross-country skiing, where she works in collaboration with the French multiple Olympic medalist Martin Fourcade, as well as boxing and rugby concussion problems.

Caroline always needs to see to understand. Photography, which she uses on a daily basis in her experiments, is her most precious ally. Fluid mechanics is a science that she appreciates particularly, and which she readily describes as "the science of the concrete and the beautiful". "I may be drawn in an unconscious way to the aesthetics of the subjects I'm dealing with. With caramel, for example, I could spend hours contemplating the shapes that form on the surface, "she concludes enthusiastically.