The W. G. Cady Prize awarded to Serge GALLIOU at the IEEE IFCS 2019

This award recognizes Serge Galliou's exceptional and pioneering contributions in the development of cryogenic acoustic resonators with extremely high quality factors (very low mechanical losses) for sensor, oscillator or fundamental physics applications.

Awarded annually since 1983, the Cady Prize is an international scientific recognition of the "IEEE Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics & Frequency Control Society" which, this year, honours Professor Galliou's innovative research on the behaviour of quartz resonators at very low temperatures. His work has made it possible to experimentally determine the ultimate limits of oscillators based on volume acoustic wave resonators. They have improved knowledge of limitations due to mechanical losses and thermal noise thanks to an original tool (cryogener) and more fundamental means of investigation (analysis of acoustic wave/thermal photon interactions, measurement of elastic coefficients).

This work is of great interest to many researchers involved in astronomy programs on gravitational waves, whose detection uses materials with very low losses, and quantum measurements.