Awards and distinctions
Aix-Marseille University thesis prize
- 2020 - Natascha Schmidt, CEM team - Presence in the environment and flows of organic contaminants of emerging interest in the north-western Mediterranean coastal zone and in the Rhône river. Work carried out under the direction of Richard Sempéré, CNRS Research Director assigned to the MIO, and Javier Castro Jimenez, IFREMER Researcher.
- 2017 - Rémi Amiraux, MEB team - Degradation of biota inhabiting the Arctic pack ice: impact of bacterial stress on its preservation and burial. Work carried out under the direction of Patricia Bonin and François Rontani, CNRS researchers assigned to the MIO.
- 2016 - Aurélie Blanfuné, EMBIO team - Global change in the north-western Mediterranean: Cystoseires forest, Sargasses, Lithophyllum corbelling and Ostreopsis bloom. Work carried out under the supervision of Marc Verlaque and Charles-François Boudouresque, research professors assigned to the MIO.
- 2014 - Marion Kersalé, OPLC team - Dynamics of mesoscale and submesoscale oceanic processes using numerical simulations and in situ data. Work carried out under the supervision of Anne Petrenko, Andréa Doglioli and Ivan Dekeyser, research professors assigned to the MIO.
- 2014 - Marine Lasbleiz, MEB team - Nutritional dynamics of phytoplankton, biogeochemical cycles of carbon and associated biogenic elements (N, P, Si) as a function of iron availability in the Southern Ocean. Work carried out under the direction of Bernard Queguiner, Professor at Aix-Marseille University, and Karine Leblanc, CNRS Research Associate, assigned to the MIO.
Environmental Sciences Doctoral School Congress Prize
Category Best oral presentation
- 2018 - Guillaume Pillot
- 2014 - Chiara Accola
Category Best poster
- 2018 - Guillaume Koenig
- 2017 - Guillaume Marchessaux
Sandrine Ruitton receives the Marine Sciences 2025 prize from the Marseille Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts
Le18 December 2025, Sandrine Ruitton (MIO Aix-Marseille Université OSU Institut Pythéas) was awarded the Marine Sciences 2025 prize by the Académie des Sciences Lettres et Arts de Marseille under the patronage of Nardo VICENTE and Hubert Ceccaldi, supported by Compagnie du Ponant.
This prize rewards personalities for their involvement in marine sciences. The Academy underlined the high quality of his internationally recognised work.
Guillaume Marchessaux, Special Prize 2025 of the Departmental Prize for Research in Provence
Guillaume Marchessaux, PhD, Senior Researcher in Population Biology at the IRD, assigned to the MIO, has been awarded the Special 2025 Prize for Research in Provence for his research into one of the major ecological threats facing the Mediterranean: the invasion of the American Blue Crab.
Natalia Torres-Rodriguez awarded 1st prize for her thesis in 2025 by the City of Marseille
Natalia Torres-Rodriguez, a doctor in environmental sciences specialising in chemical oceanography, was awarded the 2025 thesis prize by the City of Marseille on Wednesday 10 December 2025.
His doctoral work focused on the following subject: Dynamics and distribution of marine mercury species.
Lauric Reynes: winner of the Académie Marine's Exact Sciences Thesis Prize and the City of Marseille's Thesis Prize
In June 2023, the Marine Academy handed over its Prize for thesis in exact sciences Lauric Reynes, doctoral student and now post-doctoral fellow at the Institut Méditerranéen d'Océanologie, for his thesis entitled Genetic connectivity and structure of populations of Ericaria zosteroïdes (Fucales) and Laminaria rodriguezii (Laminariales) on the French coast.
This work had already been awarded the Prix de thèse de la ville de Marseille on 5 December 2022!
An oceanography course at AMU
Lauric Reynes joined Aix-Marseille University in his second year of undergraduate studies, taking the Earth Sciences and Life Sciences degree in the Sea in 2011. He continued his studies in the oceanography master's offered by OSU Pythéas, before starting a thesis in 2017 at the Institut Méditerranéen d'Océanologie (AMU/CNRS/Université de Toulon/IRD). This interdisciplinary thesis focuses on two species of brown algae endemic to the Mediterranean, belonging to the Fucales and the Laminaria. Studying these two groups has enabled us to determine how environmental characteristics shape the genetic diversity of marine forests.
Mar Benavides CNRS Bronze Medal 2021
Mar Benavides, an IRD researcher assigned to the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanology - MIO, has been awarded the CNRS Bronze Medal 2021.
The Bronze Medal rewards the first works of researchers who are specialists in their field. This distinction represents an encouragement from the CNRS to pursue research that is already well underway and fruitful.
L'Oréal-UNESCO Young Talents Award 2020
MIO - CYBELE Team - Co-supervision: Fanny Houlbreque (CR IRD UMR ENTROPIE), Sophie Bonnet (DR IRD, UMR M.I.O)
Frédéric Lemoigne received the EGU's Oustanting Early Career Scientist Award
Frédéric Lemoigne, a researcher in the MIO, CEM team, was awarded the’Outstanding Early Career Scientist Award, 2020 Ocean Sciences (OS) Division, by European Geosciences Union (EGU).
The EGU has named the 49 recipients of the Union Medals and Awards for 2020, Divisional Medals and Divisional Outstanding Early Career Research Awards. These individuals are being honoured for their significant contributions to Earth, planetary and space science. They will receive their awards at the EGU 2020 General Assembly, to be held in Vienna from 3 to 8 May 2020.
Christian Le Provost" Grand Prix for Oceanography 2019: Sophie Bonnet, 7th winner
The 2019 Christian Le Provost Prize is awarded to Sophie Bonnet, Director of Research at the Institut Méditerranéen d'Océanologie in Marseille.
Created in 2011, this prize rewards the author of research carried out in a French laboratory for outstanding work in physical oceanography and biogeochemistry.
Louise Rousselet (ex OPLC team) received the Académie de Marine's 2019 Dissertation of the Year Award on Monday 14 October 2019
The subject of her thesis, which she defended last December, was as follows: Study of the influence of (sub)mesoscale circulation on the spatial distribution of biogeochemical and biological elements using coupled in situ and satellite physical-biogeochemical measurements..
Supervisors: Andrea Doglioli and Anne Petrenko
She is currently a post-doc at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, CA.
IAPSO: Mar Benavides (MIO/CYBELE) winner of the 2019 Early Career Scientist Medal - Ocean Chemical Sciences section
The IAPSO Early Career Scientist Medal honours early career scientists for their outstanding research in the physical or chemical sciences of the oceans, and for their cooperation in international research. The IAPSO Early Career Scientist Medal is awarded every two years by the IAPSO President at the bi-annual IAPSO Assembly, during which the recipient is invited to make a presentation on a scientific topic of their choice.
Mar Benavides, a researcher at the Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD), Institut océanographique méditerranéen, Marseille, France, is the winner of the 2019 IAPSO Early Career Scientist Medal in Chemical Oceanography. The award is in recognition of her development of original strategies, integrating disciplines, to introduce an innovative and comprehensive oceanographic approach to nitrogen cycle research.
The 2019 Medal will be awarded on Friday 12 July, during the IUGG General Assembly, which will be held in Montreal, Canada, from 8 to 18 July 2019.
Lisa Tanet: Prize for the best poster in an international conference
Lisa Tanet (MEB team) was awarded the prize for the best poster in the “Spotlight presentation” category at the 20th international symposium on bioluminescence and chemiluminescence which was held at the Cité des Congrès in Nantes, France, from 28 at 31 May 2018.
The conference brought together more than 250 participants and 170 presentations (oral and poster).
BiolumReef, “Coup de cœur” award from the Fondation Jacques Rougerie Institut de France
A PhD student and two researchers from the Institut méditerranéen d'océanographie (MIO/PYTHÉAS, CNRS / Université de Toulon / IRD / AMU) - Lisa Tanet, Laurie Casalot and Christian Tamburini - and two architects - François Desruelles (Treex) and Olivier Bocquet (Tangram Lab) - were awarded a prize on Thursday. 18th January 2018 at the Institut de France“crush“The jury's “Innovation and architecture for the sea” category of the Fondation Jacques Rougerie - Institut de France international competition for their BiolumReef project.
Marion Kersale wins the Marine Academy Prize
Marion Kersale was awarded the Académie de Marine prize on Tuesday 14 October 2014 at the Ecole Militaire during the Académie's official opening session, for his thesis Dynamics of meso- and sub-mesoscale ocean processes using numerical simulations and in situ data.
Christian Tamburini (MIO) and Stéphanie Escoffier (CPPM) were awarded the 2014 La Recherche monthly prize on 21 October 2014.
Stéphanie ESCOFFIER (CPPM) and Christian TAMBURINI (MIO) were awarded the 21 October 2014at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, the Prix La Recherche 2014 awarded by the monthly magazine La Recherche for their work onusing the ANTARES marine telescope to track the movement of deep-sea water masses via the bioluminescence of abyssal bacteria.
Charles-François Boudouresque receives the 2014 Academy Award
The International Academy of Underwater Sciences and Techniques has awarded the 2014 Academy Award (“Trident d'Or”) to Charles-François Boudouresque, Emeritus Professor at the MIO.
The ceremony took place at the University of Bologna (Italy) on 27 September 2014.
Bologna is Europe's oldest university, founded in 1088. As such, it has been chosen by the European Union to designate the European university strategy (Bologna Process).
Julien Marmain, winner of the Amiral Daveluy Thesis Prize
Julien Marmain, who defended his thesis in December 2013 on coastal circulation in the north-western Mediterranean: current measurement using HF radar and coupling with a numerical model“received the Amiral Daveluy thesis prize (official prize of the French Navy awarded by the Chief of Staff) in the “engineering sciences” section on Tuesday 3 June 2014 at 6.30pm on the CESM premises at the Ecole Militaire (Paris, 7th arrondissement).