 Introduction History and geographical location of the unit

The LSV (Laboratoire "Spécification et Vérification") was founded in 1997; it is located on the grounds of the École Normale Supérieure (ENS) de Cachan. LSV is the Computer Science laboratory of the École Normale Supérieure de Cachan and the "mixed unity of research" UMR 8643 of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). It hosts also three project teams (équipes-projets) of INRIA. The research of LSV is centred on studying the security and verification of software and embedded systems. Currently, LSV consists of five research groups:

• DAHU aims at making database-driven systems more reliable and more efficient,

• INFINI is working on the automated verification of infinite systems,

• MEXICO aims at verifying distributed and concurrent systems,

• SECSI investigates the security of information systems,

• TEMPO focuses on modelling and verifing timed systems.

Management team

The director of the LSV laboratory is Mr Laurent FRIBOURG and the deputy director is Ms Patricia BOUYER-DECITRE.

AERES nomenclature

ST6 Sciences et technologies de l'information et de la communication

Unit workforce

Unit workforce 2  Assessment of the unit

The laboratory focusses his research on the modelling and analysis of computer systems. Mathematical approaches are used to study the correctness of systems and to develop formal specification and verification techniques as well as support tools. The laboratory is also engaged in teaching at the master and PhD levels.

Strengths and opportunities related to the context

The laboratory has an outstanding international and national academic reputation and an excellent publication record. Several members of LSV have received national and international academic prizes and recognitions. LSV is also very successful in acquiring national and international funding.

The organisation and life at the Laboratory with its weekly meetings and yearly retreats is almost ideal and could be an inspiring model for other laboratories and teams.

The achievements of the laboratory in training through research are very impressive. The laboratory has considerably improved its contacts with industry and the engagement with the public and the media.

Through the means of the Farman Institute LSV is also strongly engaged in interdisciplinary cooperation.

Weaknesses and threats related to the context

There are no apparent weaknesses.

An imminent threat is the moving from Cachan to Saclay. This may endanger the cooperation and the relationships with the institutions located in Paris and elsewhere. It may also be the reason for some LSV members to leave ENS and move to other institutions located in Paris or its vicinity.

Recommendations

The committee recommends that the laboratory develops a strategy for attracting more PhD students, e.g. one of the measures could be to increase the international cooperation and to make the cooperation visible on the website.

The committee supports the unit's plans and recommends to get INRIA as a third "co-tutelle".

The laboratory should also develop a strategy to minimize the threats associated with the relocation of the laboratory to Saclay.

 Detailed assessments

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs LSV excels by the quality of its scientific research. Its focus on mathematical modelling and analysis of software systems is well-chosen and tackles fundamental scientific questions of computer science. In the past five years, several outstanding results have been obtained, ranging from important theoretical data on program complexity and synthesis of distributed and timed systems to more practical findings concerning XML with incomplete information and the analysis of security APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). The latter result attracted the attention of the media worldwide with articles in New York Times, the Süddeutsche Zeitung and other media.

The scientific production was outstanding with over 570 publications, a large number of them appearing in prestigious international journals and highly rated international conferences.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

The laboratory has an excellent academic reputation at all levels, nationally, at the European level as well as internationally in America, Asia and Australia.

During the past five years members of the laboratory received several important scientific prizes: a chair at the College de France, two silver medals of the CNRS and one Presburger prize. The laboratory was also successful at the European level; one member received a ERC advanced grant and another one a starting grant. Several members were invited speakers at international conferences; moreover, the laboratory organized four international conferences.

The laboratory has also very strong national and international cooperation. Among others, this is examplified by the recent creation of the Indian-French laboratory INFORMEL with an LSV member as French co-director, and by the large number of joint publications together with external researchers. More than 60% of the publications have external co-authors, many of them being international top researchers.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

During the past five years the laboratory has considerably increased its interaction with the social, economic, and cultural environment.

One senior researcher was nominated as member of the "Comité National du Numerique"; he was also very active in the media by giving many interviews to the press and to radio stations. The laboratory was also very engaged in disseminating their software security analyses to the national and international media and raising the awareness of the public to software security threats.

Other members were very active in the design of the computer science curricula for the French high school system, and in the continuing education in computer science of high school teachers.

The laboratory was also very successful in obtaining external funding from ANR and Europe, and in concluding several contracts with industry for performing joint projects and/or licensing their software tools. A start-up company was created in order to commercially exploit one of the software prototypes.

Assessment of the unit's organisation and life

Internally, the laboratory is very well organized. Administrative and scientific meetings are hold on a weekly basis; they are open to the whole laboratory including PhD students; once a year all members gather in a retreat for discussing strategy and exchanging scientific and administrative information. In this way, the laboratory managed to create cohesion and form a real group. This organisation and life is almost ideal and could be an inspiring model for other labs and teams.

LSV makes considerable contributions to the interdisciplinary research at ENS Cachan. The current director of LSV is also co-directing the Institut Farman which coordinates and supports interdisciplinary projects at ENS Cachan. LSV participated in eight FARMAN projects. A threat may be the moving from Cachan to Saclay. This may cause some LSV members to leave ENS and move to other institutions located in Paris or its vicinity. As a consequence, the excellent common life of the group may be at stake.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

The achievements of the laboratory in training through research are very impressive. They are excellent in teaching at master and PhD levels, in international teaching and research collaboration as well as in taking initiatives for interdisciplinary cooperation.

In the past five years, 18 students from doctoral school 'Sciences Pratiques, ED 285, have successfully completed their PhD within an average duration of three years. Eight members have obtained a "habilitation" (HDR); four of them have already got offers from other institutions and have left LSV.

LSV is strongly involved in the Paris master of science studies in Research in Computer Science, where LSV is offering many courses. During the period, two LSV members were the directors of this degree; 100% of the master students of LSV entered a PhD programme at LSV or elsewhere.

LSV is also a key institution for the new Indian-French laboratory INFORMEL. The French co-director is from LSV; several exchanges of PhD students have already been organized, and the collaborations with Indian researchers have already produced joint publications.

It is remarkable that members of the laboratory published several excellent books for bachelor, master and PhD level students; moreover, members of LSV have contributed to several summer schools for PhD students.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

At the review meeting the laboratory presented a clear strategy which relies on the development of the very successful research of the last five years. The strategy focusses on the main strengths and risks of the lab. In particular, the five-year plan aims at : maintaining the unique internal coherence of the lab and the strong thematic research focus; coordinating the relationships with industry through the Farman Institute; fostering international cooperation for attracting international PhD students; and minimizing the risks involved in the relocation of the laboratory to Saclay. The plan is in line with the recommendations of the evaluation committee. In the opinion of the committee, the plan is a good basis for reinforcing the outstanding academic reputation and scientific excellence of the unit, andn therefore, it was very well appreciated by the evaluation committee. The LSV has all needed background as well as a leading role, puting it in a good position to identify and define strategic scientific directions and challenges for future research in its area. The global goal of the DAHU group is to make database-driven systems more reliable and more efficient. In this regard, it very well fits the topic of the whole laboratory, while bringing an original focus on data-oriented issues. DAHU thus gathers top-level experts in database theory and in verification in order to address, in an original and fruitful way, challenges at the intersection of these two areas. Group members study, for instance, specification and verification problems raised by web services relying on large databases, distributed data, incomplete data, and query management. In such contexts, data are poorly structured, heterogeneous, partial, erroneous, and/or unreliable, which raises crucial challenges from both fundamental and practical points of views. The group develops formal approaches, languages and algorithms to handle these issues. It publishes its results in the best conference in both the database research area and the verification one, which is remarkable. DAHU was created in 2008, and it is supported by INRIA, ENS Cachan and CNRS. It is a small group relying on the top-level activity of its few members, with a policy based on excellence and temporary stays of external colleagues.

 Team-by-team analysis

The members of DAHU are strongly involved in dissemination of their work and of scientific culture in general. This includes important actions towards general public and young researchers, key involvement in institutions framing the future of research and teaching of computer science, as well as involvement in practical applications, software implementations, publications of reference books, and, of course, classical dissemination into the academic world.

They receive support from many prestigious institutions, notably through an ERC Advanced Grant and a STREP European project with high visibility. They attract many extremely well renowned foreign visitors who are leading experts in their field and realize important advances with them.

Conclusion

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Overall opinion of the theme:

The track record of the group is excellent, with many papers published in the best conferences and journals, both in database theory and verification. The involvement of researchers of the group in management and dissemination of research is exemplary, and their work has great potential impact both on theoretical questions and on applications.

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Strengths and opportunities:

The group gathers top-level researchers with wide national and international visibility (including the general public). The research topic at the intersection of databases and verification is original, and the group is well connected to other groups with similar research interests. The group has clear practical motivations, with important potential impact on real-world applications. Its involvement in the research community, and in particular in dissemination actions, also is a strength that opens great opportunities for promoting research, in general and in their particular area.

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Weaknesses and threats:

The small size of the group clearly is a serious weakness: in such a configuration, the departure of one or two members may simply put the very existence of the group in danger. Given the great potential impact of the work done in the group, one may also expect a strongest involvement in applications.

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Recommendations:

The group should seriously consider opportunities for recruitments, including mutations from INRIA and/or CNRS (and/or other LSV groups). A more precise long-term project, that may take benefit of the unique expertise present in the group and potential applications, would also be an important contribution. The size of the INFINI research group has further increased during the period due to the recruitment of two new members (in 2008 and 2009). The group now consists of five permanent members who are strong at the international level: the senior members have a confirmed international reputation; the younger ones are clearly on their way.

The general research direction of the INFINI theme is the automated verification of infinite systems (typically, programs that manipulate unbounded data, mutually recursive communicating processes, parameterized systems ...). Their approach consists in identifying classes of models for which they can establish decidability results that allows model checking algorithms to be derived. More specifically, INFINI mainly focuses on well-structured transition systems, which is somehow their trademark.

The scientific results are of a high quality and give rise to an excellent publication records, both from a qualitative and quantitative point of view. The members of INFINI publish in first-rank journals (such as Information and Computation, Journal of Computer and System Sciences, Theoretical Computer Science, Formal Methods in System Design, Annals of Pure and Applied Logics) and well-renowned international conferences (such as LICS, ICALP, STACS, CAV, CONCUR).

The members of INFINI collaborate with other French teams which are among the best ones in the domain (LIAFA, LaBRI, VERIMAG). They also collaborate with the team of Prof. J-F. Raskin (Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium). These scientific relations are in the frame of ANR collaborative projects. One of the members of the group has been awarded a Marie Curie international outgoing fellowship, and is currently visiting the ACSys team at New York University.

Conclusion

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Overall opinion of the theme:

By addressing the problem of infinite state system verification, the INFINI group follows a line of research, which is still quite relevant. Their work, which is mainly of an academic nature, is primarily concerned with foundational issues. Nevertheless, its potential applicative impact is rather important. INFINI is a strong research group whose publication rate in highly selective journals and conferences is impressive.

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Strengths and opportunities:

The members of the INFINI group are working with a well-focused research direction, which allows them to have a good scientific visibility. Their scientific production is of very high quality. The group is small, but its members collaborate extensively with other members of the LSV.

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Weaknesses and threats:

One of the next objectives of the group is to explore the landscape of complexity beyond Elementary, and to develop the adequate notions of complexity classes and reductions. This objective is very interesting but quite ambitious. It is unlikely that such an objective could have its full impact without an effective collaboration with scientists specialized in complexity theory. This threat has been identified by the members of the group.

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Recommendations:

The group should consider opportunities for recruitments and address the practical impact of its research by case studies. The leader of the group MEXICO as well as the senior members are scientists with high international reputation. For example, one of the senior scientists received the Outstanding Paper Award at Petri Nets 2013 and at the International Conference on Applications and Theory of Petri Nets 2011. MEXICO aims at the verification of distributed and concurrent systems and uses diverse mathematical models such as automata, logics, and Petri nets for developing methodologies for designing, verifying, and monitoring distributed systems.

The scientific results are of very high quality. They are published in highly rated international journals such as Logical Methods in Computer Science, Fundamenta Informaticae, Formal Methods in System Design, Information and Computation, Theoretical Computer Science, IEEE Transactions of Software Engineering and the best international conferences in the field such as LICS, CONCUR, FOSSACS, TACAS, MFCS, QEST. The publication rate is constantly very high, with around 130 publications since 2009.

Remarkable is the international engagement; one senior scientist is the co-head of the French-Indian Laboratory InFormel. Although mainly oriented towards theoretical research, the Mexico group started to develop several tools such as the statistical model checker COSMOS.

The group takes high responsibilities in teaching, and is well integrated in the bachelor and master formations. One of the senior scientists is the head of the Department of Computer Science of ENS Cachan and was also heading the Paris Master of Research in Computer Science.

The group has started to develop prototype tools but this is not yet very visible in the scientific community. MEXICO is involved in several externally funded projects including the EU-FP7 project UNIVERSELF, Network of Excellence HYCON2, and the ANR project IMPRO. Moreover, MEXICO is a common project with INRIA.

Conclusion

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Overall opinion of the theme:

The MEXICO group investigates the verification of distributed and concurrent systems. The members of the group are internationally well-known scientists and have a very good publication record. MEXICO has formal international relationship with the French-Indian Laboratory InFormel and takes responsibilities in teaching, in particular for the Paris Master of Research in Computer Science. The group is involved in several third party projects, at the European as well as at the national levels.

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Strengths and opportunities:

The group investigates a fundamental topic of research. The publications are of very high quality and are published in very good international journals and conferences. The group is engaged in international collaborations and takes high responsibilities in teaching.

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Weaknesses and threats:

Although the group has a clear research goal, the research methods and results appear to be rather diverse. Tool development has started but is not well visible in the scientific community.

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Recommendations:

The group should develop a more coherent research agenda and strengthen the development of tools and the relationships with industry. The number of researchers has not changed during the period; the group has lost one researcher but was also able to recruit an excellent young foreign researcher. The senior members of the group are internationally reknown; in particular, the group leadr and one of the senior researchers are top international scientists; e.g. in 2013, the group leader was invited as a keynote speaker at the Sixth International Symposium on Foundations & Practice of Security (FPS'2013) and at the 39th International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2014); another senior member was invited to give a tutorial at LICS 2013 and in 2012 he was the editor of a special issue on Security and Rewriting of Journal on Automated Reasoning. Both researchers received the CNRS silver medal, one in 2008 and the other one in 2011.

SECSI investigates the security of information systems. Main goals are the verification of cryptographic protocols, intrusion detection and foundational studies on probabilistic and non-deterministic choice. The research on cryptographic protocols centres on symbolic verification methods, their soundness for computational models, and applications of these methods for e-voting, security of APIs and circuits.

The scientific results are of excellent quality, they are published in highly rated international journals such as Information and Computation, Mathematical Structures in Computer Science, ACM Transactions on Computational Logic, Theoretical Computer Science, International Journal on Information Security and the best international conferences in the field such as LICS, ICALP, CRYPTO, CCS, ESORICS, POST, CT-RSA. The publication rate is constantly very high with almost 170 publications since 2008.

The SECSI group has developed several tools; in particular, the ORCHIDS tool for intrusion detection and the Tookan tool for analysing APIs for cryptographic tokens. ORCHIDS is an open-source tool with users in France and Canada. Tookan was licensed to several companies; it got widespread interest from international press for making Bleichenbacher's "million message attack" practical on the PCKS#11 standard.

The group is involved in the ANR-funded research projects VERSO and CPP; in particular, the group is the scientific coordinator of the CPP project. Moreover, SECSI is a common project with INRIA, although currently no researchers from INRIA are members of the group.

Conclusion

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Overall opinion of the theme:

The SECSI group investigates the security of information systems, which is one of the currently most discussed topics in computer science. The members of the group are at the international forefront of research; they have an excellent publication record. The group has developed state-of-the-art research tools which enabled them to solve important problems and which are attractive for industry. SECSI is also involved in several externally funded projects, partly with industrial participation.

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Strengths and opportunities:

The group has chosen an important topic of research. The publications are of very high quality and are published in top international journals and conferences. Two CNRS silver medals show the impact and the visibility of the research in France.

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Weaknesses and threats:

Although the group is involved in ANR-funded research projects and even leading one of them, its implication at the European level is not visible.

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Recommendations:

The group should focus its research lines (as proposed by the group in its new scientific objectives). It should also continue and strengthen the development of tools and the relationships with industry. There is an opportunity to try to get involved in international projects and networks. Finally, it would be good to strengthen the relationship with INRIA, e.g. by attracting an INRIA researcher. The TEMPO group focuses on the modelling of time in verification issues, relying typically on automata, logics and games. It has a world leading expertise on the theoretical aspects of this challenge, with key contributions acknowledged at the highest level. More recently, the group worked on combining its expertise on timed systems with other aspects of systems like robustness, randomness, distributed nature, etc. In these directions too, the publication records are impressive.

The TEMPO group is strongly focused on fundamental research, with five CNRS researchers and another permanent member, a growing number of PhD students, and important (past and future) support for fundamental research from Europe (ERC, STREP) and ANR. It is also involved in interdisciplinary activities, mainly through the Farman institute, and develops prototype software implementing results from its research. The members of the group actively contribute to management of research, with the direction of several structures, participation to national and international committees, and several other actions.

Conclusion

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Overall opinion of the theme:

The group has an excellent scientific production and is a leader in its area, with a mostly theoretical results. It works on very general objects with great potential impact on many areas of science and on applications. The group researchers are strongly involved in management of research and importantly contribute to the community.

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Strengths and opportunities:

The group has excellent expertise on a key area of theoretical computer science, with high visibility and attractivity. It obtained an ERC starting grant, to which important opportunities are attached. The work of the group has great potential for practical impact and bridges to other areas of computer science (and other disciplines), which it only started to explore.

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Weaknesses and threats:

One threat for the group may be to derive more and more abstract variations of temporal automata and similar objects, on which the group has great expertise. The group may prevent this through more involvement in transfer towards applications and other areas of research. This may help in identifying the most relevant directions for future work.

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Recommendations:

The group may explore more opportunities for spreading their approaches, framework and results to applications and to other areas of research. It seems that they have all needed expertise and background to produce a reference book for non-specialists, for instance. It makes no doubt that the efforts they started in this direction will be fruitful. The relation to game theory, which seems prevalent in the report, may also be clarified. Finally, the group has the potential to identify and address key challenges for future work, both from theoretical and applied points of view. Votre rapport nous encourage à mettre tout en oeuvre pour continuer à progresser dans nos champs de recherche tout en gardant la plus grande exigence scientifique.

Bien cordialement, Laurent Fribourg Directeur LSV

  The laboratory has strengthened the relationships with INRIA, as shown by three common project teams (DAHU, MEXICO and SECSI) and several PhD and postdoc grants sponsored by INRIA. Plans for getting INRIA as a third "cotutelle" are under way.

6

  Supervising bodies' general comments Sous la co-tutelle de ÉCOLE NORMALE SUPÉRIEURE DE CACHAN 61, avenue du Président Wilson 94235 Cachan Cedex -France -Tél. : (+33) 1 47 40 20 00http://www.ens-cachan.fr Laboratoire Spécification & Vérification emailfribourg@lsv.ens-cachan.fr tout le laboratoire, je tiens à vous exprimer, à vous et au comité d'experts, nos plus sincères remerciements pour le temps que vous nous avez consacré et l'intérêt que vous nous avez porté. Nous sommes extrêmement heureux et fiers des forces et valeurs que vous nous reconnaissez. Nous vous remercions également pour les recommandations que vous formulez, qu'il s'agisse de poursuivre notre progression ou d'identifier les risques qui se présentent.

N6 36 Unit workforce Number as at 30/06/2013 Number as at 01/01/2015

	N1: Permanent professors and similar positions N2: Permanent researchers from Institutions and similar positions N3: Other permanent staff (without research duties) N4: Other professors (Emeritus Professor, on-contract Professor, etc.) N5: Other researchers from Institutions (Emeritus Research Director, Postdoctoral students, visitors, etc.) N6: Other contractual staff (without research duties) Theses defended Postdoctoral students having spent at least 12 months in the unit Number of Research Supervisor Qualifications (HDR) taken TOTAL N1 to Doctoral students Qualified research supervisors (with an HDR) or similar positions	Number as at 30/06/2013 11 13 4 2 3 3 16 28 1 8 16	Number as at 01/01/2015 11 13 4 1 1 1 17

Workforce Theme workforce in Full Time Equivalents

	Theme 2:
	Mr Alain FINKEL
		As at	As at
		30/06/2013	01/01/2015
	FTE for permanent professors	2	1
	FTE for permanent EPST or EPIC researchers	2	2
	FTE of other permanent staff without research duties (IR, IE, PRAG, etc.)	0,4	0,4
	FTE for other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.)	1	1
	FTE for postdoctoral students having spent at least 12 months in the unit	1	-
	FTE for other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, etc.) excluding postdoctoral students
	FTE for other contractual staff without research duties
	FTE for doctoral students	3	-
	TOTAL	9,40	4,40

INFINI

Manager's name:

 Detailed assessments


Ms Dominique Chandesris

History and geographical location of the unit

The Laboratory, established in Orsay more than 50 years ago in the vicinity of the main university campus, has since then maintained a particularly high level of expertise in all fields of condensed matter physics. The range of topics investigated, from electronic structure and crystallography to soft matter and biophysics, has always been very broad. Similarly, the tools of investigation range from in-house experiments to the use of large scale facilities with which the laboratory has strong connections. Theoretical activities, often in relation to experimental studies, are also developed locally. The laboratory has played an important role in the development of graduate studies in the field of condensed matter in France, and has strong connections to a large part of the French community through active collaborations, but also through former graduate students or postdocs.

2  Overall assessment of the interdisciplinary unit

LPS is an internationally recognized research institute that covers, at an excellent level, many fields of condensed matter physics. The situation of the laboratory is healthy, with numerous topical research projects carried by young researchers, supported by high-level technical staff. The financial situation is good, and the prospects associated with the development of the new physics campus put the lab in an excellent position for remaining at the forefront of condensed matter physics research in the next decade.

Strengths and opportunities related to the context

The scientific output of the laboratory as well as its projects is of excellent quality. The teams benefit from a remarkable technical environment, and have access to world-class scientific equipment, which has been largely renewed during the last decade. Overall, the international recognition of the teams is excellent, with in addition remarkable contributions in terms of outreach and in terms of industrial partnership (for a fundamental physics institute). The laboratory will benefit from a complete renovation of the building. The relocation of many different physics laboratories, and large scale facilities (including nanofabrication at C2N), within a small perimeter close to LPS is clearly an excellent opportunity for the LPS teams to develop further collaborations.

Weaknesses and threats related to the context Very few weaknesses have been identified in scientific projects or in the organisation of the laboratory; they are detailed in the report, but do not by any mean constitute a serious threat for the lab as a whole. The main difficulty, with relatively well understood reasons, is the small number of PhD students, especially in view of the strong scientific environment. Other sources of worries are the constant growing complexity of both scientific and administrative environment, which results in mobilizing the energy of the researchers into endless organisational tasks.

The renovation of the LPS building is a very positive element in the long term. Unfortunately, many practical aspects remain ill-defined at the date of the report, including in particular the availability of resources for financing the moving of experimental facilities, or the manner in which the potential impact on experimental PhD work will be handled by the University.

An unusually high turnover of the technical staff has been noticed during the reporting period. If such a turnover rate persisted, it could be considered as a serious problem for many experimental activities. Also, a relatively high number of recently recruited junior faculty members or researchers has left the lab during the period (essentially for promotions, which is seen as very positive), which in some activities, however, leads to a significant imbalance in the age distribution.

Recommendations

The committee considers that the laboratory has, overall, a portfolio of excellent research projects and can be confident on its future within the new environment of the Saclay campus. The quality of science should allow the researchers to participate with a good success rate into competitive international calls, and to continue to assume a leading role at the national and international level. The few weaknesses that have been identified in terms of research plans or organisation of the LPS do not impact the overall quality, but should nevertheless be addressed in order to maintain a homogeneous level of scientific excellence. While the relative lack of attractiveness towards PhD students depends on many factors that are beyond the influence of the lab, the quite large disparities between groups in terms of students per permanent researcher suggest that a proactive recruitment policy can be successful.

Considering the quality of the project and the number of departures of young researchers in the last five years, it seems highly desirable that the recruitment of young faculty staff in the unit is considered as a priority by the university and the CNRS. The high teaching load of scientific personnel employed by the university implies that the teams that are composed in majority by faculty members should be given priority for CNRS recruitment. The possibility -offered by the Faculty of Sciences -to transfer part of the heavy teaching load of the faculty members to CNRS staff, should also be better advertized by the university and exploited within the lab.

 Detailed assessments

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

During the reporting period, LPS has produced excellent research, often at the forefront of the activity in its respective field, on all aspects of condensed matter physics. The publication record is very good, both in quantity and quality, with numerous publications in the best journals. A few scientific highlights will be mentioned in the theme by theme analysis. At the level of the unit, it is remarkable that the level of quality is quite uniform among the different axes (novel electronic states, nanosciences, soft and biological matter) with obviously somewhat larger fluctuations at the scale of the research teams. Essentially all permanent researchers and faculty members have a substantial scientific production, with only a few (4 or 5 out of 80) exceptions. A number of emeritus members also keep a high scientific activity.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

The national and international reputation of LPS is high, as can be judged from the number of invited conference speeches and prizes that have been awarded during the reporting period. Again, this reputation is quite evenly distributed over the different fields or axes. While a majority of invited talks were given by the most senior researchers, a good number of younger researchers are progressively gaining international visibility. The lab members are involved in many ANR national projects, often with a leading position, and have a large number of international collaborations with high level institutions. The laboratory is active within a number of national (GDRs, METSA network) or local (CNano, Labex) research structures. The situation in terms of participation to European projects (Marie Curie, ERC, etc…) is good, but could probably be improved in view of the high visibility of many laboratory members.

The laboratory also frequently contributes to expertise and editorial activities at the national or international level. Researchers from all axes have been involved in the organisation of national or international conferences in their respective fields.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

The core of the activity of LPS is fundamental research. In spite of this, the unit has a significant record of industrial collaborations, mainly associated with the activity of Axis 3. Several patents associated with the development of scientific instrumentation are also worth mentioning.

LPS researchers from all fields (with a particular mention of Axis 1) have been involved in outreach activities at the local and national level. A number of results obtained in the lab have been reported in the media, lab members have given a number of lectures directed to a general or sometimes more specialized (high school teachers) audience. Also noticeable are the strong involvement in the events associated with the "year of superconductivity" and the "year of crystallography".

Assessment of the unit's organisation and life

The organisation of the unit is quite standard for a joint CNRS-University unit, with a clearly delimited scientific field, well defined pooled resources (e.g. workshop, administrative support, computing support); the laboratory council meets regularly. The premises are well maintained, with attention being paid to safety concerns. The website is updated, and the internal communication appears to be good. The committee underlines the important role played by the director of the unit over the reporting period. Her scientific perspective, personal qualities and dedication were recognized by the entire staff.

During the reporting period, the direction team as well as the researchers have had a very active and successful policy in terms of securing financing from many different sources. This allows the laboratory to devote a significant funding to the support of emerging projects, and also to maintain and enrich a very significant pool of experimental facilities.

The technical staff is distributed in a flexible way between shared services and scientific teams or axes, which accounts for the diversity of the tasks. This flexible repartition is judged positively by both researchers and staff members. In some cases staff members would appreciate a better definition of the management chain for technicians who have to work with several different research teams, without being affected to one of the common services.

The scientific organisation of the unit relies on three research axes, subdivided into research teams. The specificities of each axis are discussed below in the theme by theme analysis. The scientists in charge of the axis are associated with the scientific management of the unit. The structure is globally coherent, with, in general, a good overlap between the scientific interests of the teams within a given axis, often leading to common projects and joint equipment.

Three teams are transverse to the axis structure.

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The theory group covers the physics of strongly correlated fermions (axis 1), topological aspects in quantum systems (axis 1-2), electronic transport phenomena (axis 2) and soft condensed matter (axis 3). Activities that relate to axis 1 and axis 2 are strongly entangled, and understandably less so for axis 3. The soft condensed matter part of the group is new, but is considered as an important asset to the group and to the laboratory.

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The ODMC (Organisation et Dynamique de la Matière Condensée) team corresponds to the historical X-Ray diffraction activity within the laboratory. ODMC have developed an impressive pool of X-ray generators and sample environments that ensures their competitiveness on the world stage.The team is very productive with typically 50 high quality publications per year. This team has very strong connections to axis 1, for spectroscopic and time resolved photo-emission techniques, and to axis 3, for structural studies in soft condensed matter and nanostructured materials. The connection to the focus of axis 2 is more tenuous. As the two types of activities make use of the same in-house facilities but have distinct objectives, a suggestion is to distinguish more clearly these scientific directions while keeping a common experimental pool of instruments. A first step in this direction may be the "ultrafast measurement" project (time resolved ARPES and synchrotron) mentioned in the perspectives, which overlaps nicely with the topics developed in relation to axis 1.

-The third, newly formed, transverse team "la physique autrement" aims at giving a new dimension to the already remarkable outreach activities developed in the laboratory. This team has two permanent members, both originating from axis 1, but associates to its activities several members of the two other axes. The committee sees this development very positively in the short term, with already a strong support from the university, many collaborations, and support from Air Liquide in the form of a chair. However, disconnecting completely the outreach activity from a research activity for the permanent members may be risky in the long term, unless the activity can develop beyond the limits of LPS within the context of the Saclay campus.

In view of the long history of the institute, the transfer of responsibility for a research group from one generation of scientists to another one is an important aspect of human resource management. During the project period this has been handled skillfully by the LPS management. In the coming years, it will be important for present and future LPS responsibles to remain vigilant in this respect.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

As mentioned in the introduction, the laboratory has a long history of training students in all aspects of condensed matter physics, at the master and PhD levels. At the master level, the laboratory coordinates the program "Condensed Matter Physics" of the Master 2 specialty "Concepts Fondamentaux de la Physique" (CFP). It also coordinates the Master 1 "Physique appliquée et Mécanique" and is strongly involved in the redefining of the Master in Physics on the Saclay Campus. Many researchers contribute to graduate teaching in Orsay, Paris or Ecole Polytechnique. The laboratory has been involved in international graduate or PhD programs in the past, but none seems to be active at the moment, which is somewhat regrettable as this had been an effective manner of compensating the scarcity of graduate students.

In terms of PhD training, the quality is excellent; the students benefit from an exceptional scientific environment. They are well supervised within the research teams, and the advancement of their work is also monitored through a tutoring system involving a researcher external to the team. Students also benefit from complementary scientific and "soft skills" training. It is unfortunate that the possibilities of teaching assistantships (missions d'enseignement) are limited. However, the involvement of the lab in outreach activities extends the range of possibilities. In view of the number of foreign students and postdocs, an involvement of the laboratory in helping with various administrative formalities (visas, convention d'accueil), which are presently handled at the level of the hosting team, would be useful. Most of the graduate students appear to continue a scientific career with postdoctoral positions after their thesis, but the statistics concerning their future integration is not followed at the level of the laboratory, but rather at the level of the graduate school.

The laboratory is almost entirely associated with the graduate school "ED 107" (physique de la Région Parisienne), and the deputy director of the school belongs to LPS. A well identified difficulty of LPS as a whole appears to be the small number of PhD students. The committee spent some time trying to identify the reasons for this. The problem appears to have multiple causes, including mere geographical considerations. At the level of the graduate school, the previous policy of funding in priority students graduating from the CFP masters seems to have been detrimental to LPS, in which experimental activities could easily attract students from abroad or from other masters through research internships. As the policy of the graduate school evolves, and in combination with the appearance of a strong graduate teaching program on the Saclay campus in a building close to the laboratories, it can be hoped that this situation will change. Other aspects that could probably be improved are the publicity given to the PhD proposed by the lab, and a search for funding that does not rely on the graduate school.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The details of the scientific projects are discussed in the theme by theme analysis. Globally, the portfolio of projects appears as a logical continuation of the existing research, with an effort made to highlight the transverse character at the level of the axis. With a few exceptions, the projects described in the document tackle relevant issues in the fields of strongly correlated electrons, topological quantum matter, nano-sciences and nano-objects, soft matter, biological physics. In addition, several transverse projects involving more than one axis are presented. LPS certainly has the know-how and the infrastructure necessary to carry out this project.

The next five years will bring strong modifications of the environment. First of all, LPS will undergo an in depth renovation of the building. This will imply important perturbations for experimental activities, which appear to be relatively well anticipated, although many aspects (detailed agenda, impact on the activity of the technical staff or on ongoing PhDs) are still somewhat fuzzy. Another important modification of the local environment is the construction of buildings for several laboratories and for teaching at the L3-M2 level in the vicinity of the LPS building. This can be expected to facilitate the development of new collaborations and partnerships for aspects such as computational facilities, which are currently underdeveloped (mostly due to a lack of technical support) at the scale of the laboratory. Nanofabrication will also strongly benefit from the proximity of the newly installed C2N facilities. Overall, LPS appears to be well prepared to take advantage of these changes in the local environment.

The choice of the next director has not yet been decided. In view of the complex issues associated with renovation and the Paris Saclay University, it would be good to identify the future director at least a few months before the start of the mandate, so that a good overlap with the current team is guaranteed.

 Theme by theme analysis

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

The scientific quality of the research of Theme 1 (Axis 1) continues to be of a very high standard, being built on a long tradition of impactful science underpinned by technical excellence. The research activity of the Axis is largely devoted to pure, rather than applied, science. This makes achieving really high impact more challenging than if there were direct technological interest. Despite this, the five teams of the Axis have achieved substantial impact, with an impressive number of papers in Phys. Rev. Lett. (PRL), for example. Most teams are involved in topical areas of pure condensed matter physics such as pnictide superconductors, highly frustrated magnets and Dirac physics, while topics such as oxytronics and resistive switching have potentially applied interest. Some other topics of research, such as molecular metals, are less fashionable than they used to be, but remain of unquestionable value.

The HP team continues its world-class programme of research into molecular conductors and pressure-induced properties and has recently diversified into topical areas such as Dirac physics, C60 based superconductivity, lithium cobaltates and thin films for resistive switching. Sample provision for molecular conductors is based on a long-running collaboration with a chemical group in Rennes. The team has recently developed new pressure techniques (for example a diamond anvil cell driven by a helium membrane), as well as additional thermodynamic probes, including thermopower, Nernst effect and sound velocity experiments. Despite a downturn in international interest, molecular conductors should remain an important fundamental aspect of condensed matter physics. Given that the field is slightly out of fashion, the impact achieved by the team is impressive, with 7 PRLs and 5 JACS (Journal of the American Chemical Society) publications over the assessment period. The JACS papers reflect the interdisciplinary nature of this work (i.e. relevance to chemistry as well as physics).

The ODMC team specialises in studies of symmetries and phase transitions, reduced dimensions and out of equilibrium systems. They generally collaborate with chemical groups to obtain their samples. They also have strong links with facilities like ESRF, SOLEIL, ILL, LLB and XFEL. Scientific highlights include coherent X-ray scattering of charge and spin density waves, diffuse scattering from low dimensional and multiferroic systems, correlated systems under high pressure and ultrafast dynamics of metal insulator transitions. The ODMC group combines a high level of technical skill and close involvement in some of the most rapidly developing aspects of condensed matter physics.

The RMN team specialises in NMR, μSR and ARPES on strongly correlated systems and frustrated magnets. The group is famous historically for discovering the "pseudogap" in high-Tc superconductors, using NMR. More recently, the group has procured a new 14 T NMR system that guarantees its position as a world class NMR laboratory for condensed matter research. Judged by published material, the team has continued to achieve an excellent and consistent record in topical science of the highest quality, particularly in the areas of frustrated magnetism, pnictides and cobaltates. It has achieved 14 PRLs in the last five years, and numerous other high quality articles.

The SUMAG team specialises in thin films of high-Tc cuprate superconductors, grown by sputtering techniques. Over the evaluation period the group has produced a series of interesting papers, in good quality journals like Phys.Rev.B. These concern doped infinite layer superconductors, which are ideal model-system for cuprate superconductivity, but have received little attention elsewhere for reasons related to the difficulty of synthesising doped samples.

The THEO team specializes in the theory of novel correlated phases. Many topics are covered, including superconductivity, fractional quantum Hall effect, oxide interfaces, resistive switching, quasi-crystals, frustrated magnetism, Mott insulators, graphene, organic conductors, multicomponent quantum Hall effect, etc. The group has strong international collaborations, for example with Geneva, Singapore and Argentina, which has led to a series of high impact (e.g. Nature) publications. These outputs are well cited over the evaluation period. Overall the team has very strong outputs, with publications in several top-levels journals: during the evaluation period they published 11 PRLs, 3 Nature Journal papers and 2 Reviews of Modern Physics. The team masters a wide set of analytical and numerical methods, that allows them to tackle problems from different points of view and spans subjects extending from formal theoretical physics to applied research. A large part of the activity of the group is realized through fruitful collaborations with experimental groups, at either national or international level.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

The academic reputation of Axis 1 is reflected by a several honors and awards to its members, including for example, the Prix Jean Perrin of the SFP, and the Prix Science et Innovation of the CEA, plus a number of senior Fellowships of national and international academic organisations, like the APS. International reputation is confirmed by over 150 invited communications at national and international conferences. The members have also been very active in organising such conferences, with several in the field of quantum and frustrated magnetism for example. Members have been lead organisers of networks such as the Highly Frustrated Magnetism network of the ESF. There are a strong number of international partnerships with leading laboratories in Europe, the USA and Japan, as well as many national partnerships with institutions and facilities in France. The teams of the axis have been successful at raising contracts (ANR, regional and RTRA) and recruiting an adequate number of postdoctoral researchers and PhD students. The high academic level and reputation of visitors to the laboratory reflects its strong international appeal and reputation. Other evidence of reputation and appeal include the publication of a Rev. Mod. Phys. on a very topical subject and the general willingness of international materials synthesis groups to supply samples. In general the researchers and teams in Axis 1 enjoy a very high international reputation as judged by objective evidence.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

The Axis has had a notably impressive and original interaction with the social and cultural environment, which has certainly stimulated public interest in the science of the LPS. Communication and outreach activities have included a large number of TV, radio and newspaper interviews with several members of the Axis. Conferences and talks have been organised (particularly on superconductivity and graphene) for school students, with yearly up to 40 talks reaching 4000-6000 students. Other highlights include several special events for the general public, including three science fairs and participation in the 2011 CNRS Trocadero event on materials. The production of the websites www.supraconductivite.fr, www.toutestquantique.fr and www.vulgarisation.fr has achieved great presence on the internet (the first of these appears to be the world's most visited superconductivity website). Members of the axis have developed many novel animations and educational devices. There has been direct training of highschool teachers and creation of an outreach course at the university. Interaction with the cultural environment is further evidenced by the creation of new shows and exhibits for science museums (Cité des Sciences, Palais de la Découverte, Espace des Sciences, Cité de l'Espace). The impressive outreach activity is underlined by the setting up of a new dedicated outreach team by two member of the Axis, which will ensure the continued promotion of condensed matter physics to the largest public. The UPSud staff and several CNRS staff of the Axis are closely involved in teaching undergraduates and several UPSud staff members have significant education management responsibilities. Finally there is evidence of interaction with the economic environment as evidenced by two patents (here it should be noted that a larger number of patents would not be expected for a pure research laboratory).

Assessment of the unit's organisation and life

In general, the scientific activity and objectives of the Axis are clearly defined and logical. The basic organisation is in terms of five almost independent teams. This structure functions very effectively to maintain scientific continuity and expertise, and to guard against the risk of individuals becoming isolated. Threats to the effectiveness of teams are generally dealt with decisively. For example, the ODMC team has recently suffered a significant wave of retirements but has been strengthened by the hiring of 5 young members. The HP team has responded strongly to the challenges identified in the last evaluation and successfully diversified its approach into new areas of research.

There are significant and well-planned scientific infrastructure developments that serve the present and future scientific needs of the researchers of Axis 1. For example, the new cryogen-free 14 T NMR instrument is a unique facility that promises exciting scientific opportunities for many years to come. The team structure also allows the flexibility and resource to move in new directions, where appropriate. Thus HP has diversified its interests and opportunities by developing new equipment, while RMN has started a limited programme of single crystal preparation which will stimulate new science and guard against risks to sample supply.

The teams interact very effectively with each other in scientific terms -notably there is a general interest in superconductivity across several teams of the Axis. Teams further benefit from generally available resources such as the 14 T NMR instrument mentioned above.

The general impression of Axis 1 is of a well-functioning, effective and collegial organisation. Any small problems arising appear to have been dealt with swiftly and effectively at a local level and no significant structural problems are noted.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

The team structure of Axis 1 appears to work very well in guiding PhD students, who have many local experts to call upon. Students emerge with a very strong scientific grounding and become highly competitive for research positions elsewhere. They also have significant and exciting opportunities for close involvement with outreach programs. In general the standard of doctoral training and the level of the PhD students recruited seems to be very high. In some cases, undergraduate students benefit from training through research. For example, there is a 4-circle X-ray diffractometer dedicated to teaching (run by the ODMC team). In general the members of Axis 1 are highly involved in training through research and alert to innovative training opportunities arising from the latest scientific developments.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The strategy and five-year plan of Axis 1 aims to maintain and extend even further the already high scientific output of the axis. It is draws an optimum balance between risk and caution and is original, feasible and convincing. One striking aspect is the integration between teams, such than most projects involve several teams working in partnership. The effect of this will be to bring added value to the research and competitiveness of the individual teams. The planned themes that run across the whole axis include unconventional superconductivity, oxytronics, charge and spin density waves, Mott transition, resistive switching, novel magnetic states, Dirac/Topological matter and spin-orbit effects. In most experimental teams there has been a forward-looking development of experimental facilities, which will serve the research of the laboratory well in the next five years. The theory group is highly integrated into many of the experimental projects and itself has a particularly ambitious and exciting five year-plan. The axis and its teams have a suitable awareness of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats concerning their five-year program.

Conclusion

In general the science and outputs of Axis 1 are of a very high quality and highly competitive with those of top laboratories worldwide.

The most important strength is evidently the high academic level and international reputation of the individual scientists that comprise the five teams of the axis, as well as the excellent level of technical support, training and outreach. Another significant strength is the maintenance of cutting edge experimental facilities (e.g, the X-ray expertise of ODMC, the new 14 T NMR instrument of RMN etc.), which facilitates topical and innovative experimental science. A third strength is the level of integration between the five different teams and between theory and experiment.

No serious general weaknesses are noted.

As regards specific teams, the SUMAG team is now surely at subcritical size, having recently suffered the departure of its most experienced scientist, and the planned departure of another member. The LPS should consider either merging it with another team interested in superconductors, or investing to rebuild the team, especially with a view to exploring new growth techniques.

There also appears to be a threat to the RMN team in that, despite significant efforts, the group failed to secure the appointment of a new CNRS researcher. With the return of one senior member to a full teaching load and the departure of another member to form a new outreach team, RMN may be depleted in strength in the next few years.

On the basis of this team's consistent and outstanding performance, it would clearly be appropriate to recruit more than one new researcher to replace these losses.

Concerning the THEO (theory) group, in the evaluation period two junior permanent staff members (MdC, CR2/1) moved to others laboratories in France. This situation, added to the fact that one other junior researcher of the theory group of Axis 2 also left, has weakened the group, unbalancing the ratio of junior to senior members. Consequently, for the theory group, it will clearly be important to recruit junior permanent staff.

Theme 2:

Condensed matter physics in reduced dimensions Manager's name:

Mr André. THIAVILLE

Workforce

Workforce to be given in FTE.

Theme workforce in Full Time Equivalents

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

There is no doubt that the work performed by researchers in theme 2 (axis 2) is, overall, of very high quality. The scientific output, as can be seen from publications during the evaluated period, is excellent, with some teams or sub-teams exhibiting outstanding performances. The committee appreciated the quality of the scientific work performed within this axis. All the members are encouraged to take advantage of this unique scientific and technical environment to develop their research activity.

IDMAG tackled a wide range of important magnetic problems, primarily using various magnetic microscopies, their deep experimental expertise. They are clearly at the forefront of several topics in nanomagnetism and spintronics, by the suitable combination of instrumentation (magnetic microscopy) and modelling/simulation expertise. The key outputs include current-induced (spin-transfer torque) and magnetic field-induced domain wall dynamics in ferromagnetic metals and magnetic semiconductors. There has also been important research undertaken in thermally-activated magnetic reversals, electric field interactions in multiferroics and the study of rare-earthtransition-metal ferrimagnets. The group has an impressive array of experimental capabilities, new or available following the leave of retired staff, including a magnetic STM-BEEM imaging instrument with remarkably high spatial resolution (sub 10nm) and low temperature AFM shared with MESO and NS2, a deposition, a UHV deposition setup, a variable-temperature FMR. This may induce the team to develop their strategy where their best strengths in experiments will lie.

The MESO team appears as a reference group in the field of mesoscopic transport and hybrid systems. During the evaluation time, it strengthened its position by obtaining a series of important results in the field. Among them we cite the proof of the difference between elastic scattering time and transport scattering time in graphene by measurement of magnetoresistance oscillation, the measurement of quantum (frequency asymmetric) noise in SIS and Kondo systems, the study of proximity effect and Andreev states in several low dimensional conductors, the investigation of high frequency transport. The scientific interests and expertises of the MESO team are close to those of NS2. The committee appreciated the growing interaction between these two excellent teams.

The NS2 team's performance was also excellent during the reporting period. Despite its relatively small size, the team tackled a large number of important topics such as microwave cooling, quantum noise in tunnel junctions, injection in SFS and SNS hybrid sysems… The work on full counting statistics is particularly encouraging for future breakthroughs in quantum correlation studies. The team is developing new important instruments such as lowtemperature SGM, jointly with the MESO and IDMAG teams.

ODMC is mainly set in axes 1 and 3, with a small fraction attached to axis 2. While the relevance of such configuration should probably be re-examined, the work performed during the reporting period is very original and of very high quality. The physics of nanotubes and other carbon based nanostructures is the core business of this team. The output on the physics of 1D chains of fullerenes in nanotubes (liquid and crystal-like behaviors) is particularly noteworthy, as well as the one on the flow of water molecules. This interdisciplinary research implied an important effort in synthesis and instrumentation, some also of use for other teams.

STEM is a large and highly succesful team. The scientific quality is excellent and the publications and work discussed in the report are of a very high standard and with international recognition. The work is focussed primarily in electron energy loss spectroscopy at very high spatial and energy resolution. Work progresses in parallel in the development of instrumentation and also in its application to a variety of materials, primarily nanostructures (rods, tubes, quantum wells etc) -interacting with other teams (and axes). There is a strong development in spectral processing and more recently ab initio theory with a permanent theoretical team member, an expertise which may also be useful for several other teams. Electron diffraction is also being developed to study structural ordering.

The THEO group is a clear reference in the field. The group investigates classical and ground-breaking problems in mesoscopic physics (dynamical Coulomb blockade, graphene, topological insulators, majoranas) obtaining results at the top level and publishing in highly ranked journals. While the group has lost recently a few of its members, which should be considered in future hiring issues, and has some members less active than in the past, it has performed remarkably well. Among the key outputs, one can emphasize: the work on noise in Kondo quantum dots (in relation with MESO and NS2 teams) and in general non-linear transport systems, the key issue of topology and Dirac points in graphene, the strong activity on spectroscopy of Andreev and Majorana states. The new interest in the physics of cold atoms is worth emphasizing. The THEO group is indeed a multi-axis component of LPS with numerous interactions with experimentalists, which proved to be very efficient in addressing key problems.

The editorial path through which most of the results have been published is a clear indication that the research undertaken in axis 2 is at the forefront of several topics and is clearly among the most important areas of condensed matter physics shared by the international scientific community. This is true for all the teams involved in the axis. The major progresses made during the last five years were numerous and won't be listed here to not forget any.

It is also worth emphasizing that, while the scientific life is mainly within teams, many inter-team instrumental and scientific interactions have made this success possible. We believe that these interactions will be naturally strengthened in the future. The team size seems appropriate, except maybe for the ODMC component which should benefit from a more clearly identified team-like connection with one of its two other components in axis 1 or 3. The numerous fruitful collaborations with the THEO team should also be emphasized as a good example of the usefulness of the axis structure.

Among experimental teams, the activity in terms of development of high-end novel instrumentation is impressive. These developments are sometimes beyond single teams which is clearly positive. The quality of the technical support should here be recognized and emphasized. The close collaboration between engineers and researchers, aided by the axis structure, should be encouraged.

The activity of the axis in terms of grants is at the level of what is above: excellent.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

With some inhomogeneity related to age, career constraints… the academic reputation of the researchers in axis 2 is excellent. Citations, numerous prizes, invitations to conferences, national and international collaborations, participation to selective cenacles, granted research projects and networks… all aspects of which point towards the very high reputation of axis 2 members. Logically, the teams attract many post-docs which is essential. The fact that a relatively small number of PhD students choose LPS as their destination seems substantially related to social life and transportation issues about which the lab has close-to-zero impact. On the other hand, the work done at the master and doctoral school levels, in which some staff of axis 2 are involved, as well as the coming "plateau de Saclay", should hopefully enhance its attractiveness for PhD students in the near future.

Despite their excellent reputation and scientific/technical environment, some teams have seen a substantial reduction in the number of permanent staff.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment Axis 2 is involved in a number of actions towards the "outside world" in the form of expertise, communication to the media, patents, industrial contracts, outreach activities. This last point -certainly not the least -appears to take momentum in LPS with the "physique autrement" inter-axis team being ever more active. Beyond the two researchers that are fully dedicated to outreach activities in LPS, it is good to see that many axis 2 members put significant efforts in this direction. The connection between outreach activities and research activities should be maintained as they will surely feed each other.

The contacts with the industrial world are also essential, as exemplified by the co-development of a new ground-breaking electron microscope (CHROMATEM) by the STEM group. Other teams have also shown efforts in this direction during installation of new high-end equipment.

Assessment of the unit's organisation and life

As already mentioned, the axis momentum is growing in the direction of stronger links between teams. Joint seminars are organized and advertized properly so that interactions grow favorably. The axis is a rather new concept in the organization of the lab, but its leadership is efficient and positively considered. Each team is very dynamic and its members are strongly involved in team life. The team clearly remains the main structural entity, which looks rather efficient, but intra-axis interactions enrich the spectrum of opportunities. Inter-axis interactions are also essential, while somewhat weaker, except for THEO, ODMC, and outreach, obviously. Except for the ODMC component of axis 2 which might look sub-critical and might therefore benefit from a stronger integration with its two other components in axis 1 or 3, the research organization seems efficient. Its openness to inter and intra-axis opportunities will be essential in the future.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

Particularly through one of its members, axis 2 plays a major role in the doctoral school, which is essential. Though inhomogeneously distributed, many members of the axis participate in teaching at the master level. The number of PhD students remains relatively low with respect to the attractiveness of the axis teams which may hopefully change in the future with the re-organization of master programs and/or plateau de Saclay. The counterpart is that PhD students are globally very well trained and happy to work in LPS. The committee would like to encourage the axis teams to sometimes communicate more efficiently on the very interesting PhD projects they propose.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

While the team remains an important place for the definition of research projects, the axis is growing in importance in defining research strategies. Beyond the very high quality of the proposed projects, their intra-axis component appears clearly. The projects are well in line with hot topics in the various fields and successes in the reporting period. The numerous challenges in terms of experimental developments are at the the level of prior achievements: excellent, again. Among intra-axis interactions, those between experimentalists and theorists are also extremely relevant.

The issues of nanofabrication and characterization are central for axis 2 and LPS in general. They are changing quickly and the need for more expensive and more shared equipment will grow. We encourage the axis members to consider these issues in the context of the changes associated with the new Saclay campus, not in the short term, but in the medium and long term as large investments are rare opportunities.

Conclusion

The theme has an excellent research output, with a very good organisation of the activity that is developed at different level within the teams and the axis. It has a continuing and reknown expertise in condensed matter physics of reduced dimension, with a very high reputation of the team members at the national and international level. It develops state-of-the-art instrumentation with very strong implication in novel developments. Clear forces and funding are devoted to instrumental developments of a world-class sophisticated instrumentation, paving the future. Collaboration across teams within the axis is also a strong point, which could be further developed.

The project shows a continuation along the lines of the previous research, but also an improved collaboration and sharing of resources between the different teams. This seems an important asset for the axis, the local visibility of which could be improved, also in presence of the large reorganization of the Plateau area. One important issue is the possible lack of manpower, in general and to operate the equipments newly developed or left in order by staff recently retired. Hiring in the theory group should be considered, as the departure of a few members changed the balance Senior/Junior among permanent researchers. Overall, the research within this axis is of excellent quality, both on soft matter and biophysics aspects, with some fluctuations across the teams. The research combines fundamental aspects and more applied questions, which take inspiration from each other.

The AFPO (Adhesion, Friction and Polymers) team is a vivid young team whose activity is focused on adhesion, friction and polymers. With the background of a distiguished emeritus researcher and some unique methods like the capillary bridge technique, the team publishes in highly-ranked journals and attracts a high number of PhD students. The team therefore gains international recognition. The technical facilities are excellent, some of the apparatus have been home-built, also thanks to the mechanical workshop of the LPS.

The FIBRES (Tissues and biological fibres) team, concentrates on the biomechanics of cells and tissues, topics that were initially introduced by a now emeritus researcher. It is a very small team with very few full-time researchers. After the last assessment, the team was challenged to focus its research interests and to develop a clear perspective for the future. Unfortunately, this does not seem to have been fully achieved. Interesting synchrotron based technological developments for biomedical applications can be mentioned for the last period, but the activity on mechanical testing of cells does not appear to be state of the art in a very competitive international environment. The scientific output is moderate in specialized journals. The organisation of the team involves several disconnected subjects carried out by single researchers.

The MOUS (Liquid interfaces) team, formed by three permanent researchers, who are all experts in their fields, publishes in highly ranked journals and is backed by an internationally renowned emeritus scientist. The team is well-organized, feature very good technical facilities and are very well embedded into Axis 3 (theme 3) with very close collaborations with team 1. The activity is an exemplary combination of application driven and curiosity driven research, covering all aspects of soft interface and foam physics as well as physical chemistry.

The ODMC (Organization and dynamics of condensed matter) team specializes in the application of X-Ray scattering techniques to various soft condensed matter systems. This leads to a good production (with however quite strong disparities between the members) that appears in reference journals in physical chemistry. The team has made interesting studies of both static and dynamical properties of a variety of soft matter systems, involving in particular the combination of nanoparticles and mesophases.

The SOBIO (Structure and dynamics of self-assembled objets) team is an interdisciplinary, powerful group that features an excellent track record with excellent impact and a clear perspective for the future. The team's cryo-TEM technique is world-wide unique. The development of the new project on the dynamics and deformation of biofilms by young researchers is very promising. Outstanding is the in-house production depth for the biological samples: from growing cells and plants to preparing viruses docking on bacteria over advanced TEM analysis techniques to the mechanical testing of biofilms and the modelling of lipid-DNA. They are nicely embedded in axis 3 and feature collaborations with other teams. They expect to intensify this cooperation in the near future, especially with the THEO team.

The THEO (Theory) team is a newly formed entity, which has been created following the recommendation of the previous assessment committee. By the recent recruitment of two researchers with an excellent track record and high level publications in modelling of soft matter systems (mostly outside the context of LPS) the team has excellent starting conditions and is already interacting strongly with the experimental activities of the axis.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

A number of researchers in this axis enjoy an excellent international visibility, concentrated on but not limited to the most senior members, and with younger members gaining progressively a high international recognition. This translates into a very good number of invited talks at conferences and several prestigious awards as well as a participation in European networks (especially for the MOUS and AFPO teams). The teams of the axis have also been active in organisation of international conferences, and most of them are able to attract excellent students and postdocs. The attractiveness is also displayed by the ability to attract funding from many different sources, with a diversity in terms of disciplines (e.g. funding related to biomedical research) and of institutional origin (ANR, EU, industry).

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment Overall, the interaction with the economic environment is excellent in the context of an institute dedicated to fundamental research. This interaction takes the form of multiple contracts and expert activities, especially in the AFPO and MOUS teams. These activities are strongly connected to the fundamental aspects of the research carried out in the teams, and often result in excellent job opportunities to the involved students and postdocs.

The axis (and in particular AFPO and MOUS teams) has also contributed very significantly to the outreach activities of the institute.

Finally, the commitment of the axis (SOBIO team) to the Cryo-TEM activity within the national infrastructure METSA is remarkable.

Assessment of the unit's organisation and life

Collaborations, team spirit and scientific achievements and output of Axis 3 are exemplary. The structuring of the LPS into axes has turned into everyday life here. Most of the future projects involve researchers from several different teams, and the present scientific interaction between the different teams is already very good. The scientific atmosphere at the level of the axis is highly appreciated by students and researchers alike.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

The axis has a good number of PhD students in the AFPO, MOUS, ODMC and SOBIO teams, which benefit from an excellent research environement. Since the THEO team has an excellent potential for graduate training, it will surely be able to attract PhD students, too. Many researchers participate in the graduate teaching in soft matter in Orsay or Paris, and several faculty members play an important role in the organisation of teaching at the university.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The presented proposal has been elaborated at the level of the axis, and involves many promising collaborations between different teams. Most of the proposed directions appear to be innovative and based on an excellent expertise of the teams involved. This is especially true for the projects lead by the AFPO , MOUS and SOBIO teams, and for the theory/experiment interactions. In contrast to this general statement, the biophysics projects involving the FIBRES team are clearly subcritical and do not correspond to the international state of the art. It is strongly recommended that the team members try to reformulate their research ambitions by taking advantage of the strong thematic overlap with the activities of the SOBIO and ODMC teams. The proposed activity in the field of self assembly and nanomaterials corresponds very well to the expertise of the ODMC group, but could be better motivated either in terms of fundamental physics issues or of potential applications.

Conclusion

The soft matter and biophysics activity within LPS, in spite of the retirement of several leaders in the field, maintains an activity at the highest international level. The reinforcement of the theory group has been one of the very positive outcomes of the reporting period.

Most of the groups have recruited reasonably well during the reporting period. The activities of the THEO group, which are strongly computational in nature, would benefit from a better technical support in this area. The projects of the AFPO group rely in part on the involvement of an emeritus professor, and could easily motivate the recruitment of a new researcher. The SOBIO team, which in addition to developing several excellent research projects provides a significant service to the community, would also justify a reinforcement.

Coming to the specific team structure, it is clear that the FIBRES teams has to reconsider its project, and that a reasonable option would be to merge with teams with similar objectives (SOBIO, ODMC).

Overall, the structure of the axis is scientifically very healthy, with many motivated young researchers playing an increasing role, an excellent scientific animation and a reasonable number of postdocs and students. The few weaknesses that have been identified do not affect this very positive assessment, and can be corrected without any strong inflexion of the general scientific directions within this axis.

Unit workforce Number as at 30/06/2013 Number as at 01/01/2015

	Doctoral students	38
	Theses defended	60
	Postdoctoral students having spent at least 12 months in the unit*	7
	Number of Research Supervisor Qualifications (HDR) taken	12
	Qualified research supervisors (with an HDR) or similar positions	59	57

ROZENBERG Workforce Workforce to be given in FTE. Theme workforce in Full Time Equivalents

	Theme 1:
		As at	As at
		30/06/2013	01/01/2015
	FTE for permanent professors	16	16
	FTE for permanent EPST or EPIC researchers	7.3	7.3
	FTE of other permanent staff without research duties (IR, IE, PRAG, etc.)	7.3	7.3
	students	6	5
	FTE for other contractual staff without research duties
	FTE for doctoral students	11
	TOTAL	47.6	36.6

Novel electronic states

Manager's name: Mr Philippe MENDELS / Mr Marcelo FTE for other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.) 1 FTE for postdoctoral students having spent at least 12 months in the unit FTE for other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, etc.) excluding postdoctoral  Detailed assessments

Theme 3 :

 3 Soft condensed matter and biophysicsManager's name:

	Ms Françoise LIVOLANT

Workforce Workforce to be given in FTE. Theme workforce in Full Time Equivalents

		As at 30/06/2013	As at 01/01/2015
	FTE for permanent professors	10	10
	FTE for permanent EPST or EPIC researchers	17.3	16.3
	FTE of other permanent staff without research duties (IR, IE, PRAG, etc.)	4.3	4.3
	FTE for other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.)	4	3
	FTE for postdoctoral students having spent at least 12 months in the unit	3
	FTE for other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, etc.) excluding postdoctoral students	9	3
	FTE for other contractual staff without research duties	1
	FTE for doctoral students	14
	TOTAL	62.6	36.6

 Detailed assessments

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

 Supervising bodies' general comments