The January 1st promotion to the légion d’honneur distinguished 487 people, including Hélène Courtois, Vice-President for International Relations at the Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University and researcher at IP2I.
Hélène Courtois is an astrophysicist and cosmographer. She is a senior member of the Institut universitaire de France. For many years, she has participated in the dissemination of emerging knowledge to the general public, and has been supporting the Vaulx-en-Velin Planetarium for 5 years. The Legion of Honor was founded by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802. It is the highest of French national distinctions. Today, it has 92,000 members, rewarded for their outstanding merits in the service of the nation.