Estelle Iacona and Nathalie Lassau are awarded the Legion of Honour
On Tuesday 9 July, 79 figures from the world of higher education, research and innovation were awarded or promoted within the ranks of the French national order of the Legion of Honour. Among the recipients were two figures from Université Paris-Saclay.
Estelle Iacona
A professor at CentraleSupélec since 2007 and the outgoing president of Université Paris-Saclay, Estelle Iacona has been made a Knight of the Legion of Honour.
Former deputy director and later director of the Macroscopic Molecular Energy & Combustion Laboratory (EM2C – Univ. Paris-Saclay/CentraleSupélec/CNRS), Estelle Iacona was also vice president, director of research, delegate director general from 2012 to 2019 at CentraleSupélec. Estelle Iacona was advisor to the president of CentraleSupélec for the Université Paris-Saclay project, and in March 2020, she was appointed first vice president and vice president for the Governing Board of Université Paris-Saclay. Upon the appointment of the university’s former president, Sylvie Retailleau, as French Minister for Higher Education and Research, Estelle took on the role as acting president at Université Paris-Saclay. In June 2022, she was elected president of Université Paris-Saclay by its Governing Board until March 2024.
Nathalie Lassau
A university professor and hospital practitioner at Université Paris-Saclay in radiology, and co-director of the Paris-Saclay Multimodal Biomedical Imaging Laboratory (BIOMAPS – Univ. Paris-Saclay/Inserm/CEA/CNRS), Nathalie Lassau has been made a Knight of the Legion of Honour.
Since 2014, Nathalie Lassau has managed the Biomedical Higher Education Institute (IFSBM), a department at the Université Paris-Saclay Faculty of Medicine. IFSBM gives engineering students from grandes écoles the opportunity to obtain medical training, thanks to a partnership with CentraleSupélec, Institut d'Optique, ENS Paris-Saclay, Polytechnique and Polytech Paris-Saclay.
Nathalie Lassau is vice president of the French Society of Radiology (SFR) for innovation. She is also a member of the Academic Council at CentraleSupélec and a member of INSERM’s 7th Specialised Scientific Commission (CSS7) and was recently made a member of the Research Commission at Université Paris-Saclay. Nathalie Lassau is also a member of the board at the French Society for Radiology (SFR) and the French College of Radiology Professors (CERF). She is also a member of the American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine (AIUM) and the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). Nathalie Lassau was also behind the first data challenge, organised as part of the Francophone Days of Radiology in 2018. The event included five simultaneous challenges in Artificial Intelligence applied to MRI, scanners and ultrasounds. Over 5,000 patients were included over a period of four months par 50 public and private centres, with the participation of 25 multidisciplinary teams of students, radiologists, engineers and companies.