Institute

Presentation of the lab

The Institute of Physics of the 2 Infinities (IP2I) is a joint research unit (UMR 5822) of the CNRS/IN2P3 and the University Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL). The IP2I hosts the Advanced Materials Laboratory(LMA), a “national research platform” of IN2P3. The laboratory is involved in most areas of subatomic physics, namely Standard Model particle physics and beyond, neutrinos, astroparticles and cosmology, gravitational waves, nuclear structure and quark-gluon plasma. For example, IP2I was a major player in the discovery of the Higgs boson at CERN. IP2I is also at the frontier of astrophysics, on the major issues of cosmology, such as dark matter and dark energy, to understand the composition of the Universe and its evolution. IP2I also has interdisciplinary activities on subjects with strong societal issues related to health (hadrontherapy) and nuclear energy (reprocessing and materials of the future).

The national LMA platform increases the visibility of the IP2I through its worldwide expertise in the deposition of ultra-thin optical layers. It has developed the world’s most reflective mirrors, which were used to discover gravitational waves in 2015 and 2017 by the LIGO (US) and VIRGO (EU) experiments.

The research activities are structured in four thematic poles: the infinitely small, the infinitely large, theory and interdisciplinary sciences.

IP2I is equipped with five technical departments: instrumentation, computer science, mechanics, microelectronics and electronics. The highly qualified technical staff designs and builds innovative tools and constitutes a technological force recognized nationally and internationally. The laboratory benefits from state-of-the-art equipment with equipped experiment rooms, some of which are “clean”, and a mechanical workshop. It includes the national research platform LMA and two technical platforms in radiation and nuclear metrology (ANAFIRE and LABRADOR).

The IP2I in figures :

The laboratory is composed of about 250 people including :

• 42 teacher-researchers
• 32 permanent researchers
• 8 emeritus researchers
• 94 engineers and technicians
• more than 60 non-permanent positions (doctoral and post-doctoral students).

In addition to these persons, about 40 trainees and about 25 foreign visitors are received each year in our premises.

Valuation and dissemination of knowledge

Most of our research is carried out in leading international collaborations and our contributions are recognized worldwide. We participate in the training of young people in and through research, in university teaching, and in the valorization of our results. The developments carried out at IP2I in the framework of fundamental research are intended, as far as possible, to be transferred to the socio-economic world and we have strong links with various socio-economic actors in the AURA region through research partnership contracts: ANR, IDEX, LABEX and Horizon 2020.

Laboratory 2019 Brochure

Organizational chart of the institute

Direction

Team leaders

Service managers