High Resolution Molecular Spectroscopy

HiRes is the acronym of the “Laboratoire Européen Associé (LEA)" called "Spectroscopie Moléculaire à Haute Résolution". This LEA originally involved six laboratories from three countries: Belgium (Bruxelles, Louvain-la-Neuve, Namur), France (Lille, Orsay) and Germany (Köln). On January 1st 2006, the group of Louvain-la-Neuve ("Laboratoire de Spectroscopie Moléculaire", Prof. A. FAYT) closed and therefore left the LEA, and the "Institut für Physikalische Chemie" (RWTH, Aachen, Germany) joined the consortium. At about the same time, the members of the French group of Orsay involved in the LEA moved to Créteil. As a result of these changes, the network now involves two research groups in Belgium (Bruxelles, Namur), France (Créteil, Lille) and Germany (Köln, Aachen), thus fulfilling a strict balance among the three countries involved.

The LEA aims at developing a regional structure promoting the applications of High Resolution Spectroscopy in the field of Molecular Physics. Applications concern planetary science, atmospheric studies, astrophysics of the interstellar medium, time dependent chemistry, analytical chemistry, and process analysis. The laboratories share their equipments and favour the exchange of researchers. For more details and pictures, see here.

The LEA was positively evaluated by an international Committee of experts in October 2001, and a contract was signed by the national agencies: the "Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS)" in Belgium, the "Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)" in France and the "Deutsche Forchungsgemeinschaft (DFG)" in Germany. Such a contract is the official recognition of an exemplary collaboration partnership (more than 170 common peer reviewed publications in two decades).