Laboratoire des Sciences des Procédés et des Matériaux – CNRS UPR 3407 (LSPM)
The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (National Center for Scientific Research) founded in 1939 by governmental decree is a public organization under the responsibility of the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research. As the largest fundamental research organization in Europe, CNRS carried out research in all fields of knowledge. With 34,000 researchers, engineers and technicians, CNRS is organized around 10 institutes which orchestrate its scientific policy, while its 19 divisions represent it in the regions. CNRS has a budget of approximately €3.3 billion. Its 1,053 laboratories, including 95% in partnership with universities, higher-education institutions and other research organization are present throughout France. In the proposed project, the LSPM–CNRS will be involved in the work packages focused on synthesis and investigation of novel (super)hard boron-rich compounds of light elements. LSPM created in 2011 by integration of LPMTM (CNRS UPR 9001) and LIMHP (CNRS UPR 1311), is focused on multidisciplinary research of materials’ elaboration and behavior under various physico-chemical conditions and mechanical treatment. The high-pressure group of LPMTM/LSPM under supervision of Prof. Dr. Vladimir L. Solozhenko was created in 2003 with the aim of synthesis and investigation of novel advanced materials in the framework of the long-term research program « Materials under Extreme Conditions ».

CV of persons who will primarily be involved in the project

Vladimir L. Solozhenko (male) received his MS (1980), PhD (1984) and DSc (1993) degrees from the Department of Chemistry, Moscow State University (Russia). He was appointed as Junior Researcher, Researcher, Senior Researcher and Leading Researcher at the Institute for Superhard Materials of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kiev, Ukraine) in 1984, 1986, 1989 and 1993, respectively. In 2003 Vladimir was appointed as Directeur de Recherche at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France).
Vladimir L. Solozhenko is the world leading expert in high-pressure physical chemistry of boron nitride and new superhard B–C–N–O phases. He was the first who employed synchrotron radiation in situ studies to further advance in understating the kinetics and mechanism of phase transformations in the B–C–N–O system at extreme conditions which resulted in synthesis of new high-pressure phases i.e. cubic BC₂N, diamondlike BC₅ and nanocrystalline cBN, the hardest known solids after diamond. The last twenty years of his 35-years scientific career were very productive due to the international networking which enabled him to perform cutting edge research using state-of-the-art experimental facilities. He has published about 200 scientific articles on high-pressure science, physical chemistry and superhard materials, and received a dozen of patents on synthesis of superhard phases. Apart from impact on understanding of high-pressure physics and chemistry of compounds of light elements, the results of his work are expected to have important technological applications.