Alicia Vallet, a nuclear magnetic resonance study engineer in the IBS NMR group, has been awarded the 2025 CNRS Crystal Medal for her involvement in the Infranalytics national research infrastructure.
After obtaining her Master 2 in ‘Polymers for advanced technologies’ at the Joseph Fourier University (now University Grenoble Alpes), Alicia was recruited as a CNRS study engineer to join the ‘Advanced NMR methods in solution’ team at the Institute de Biologie Structurale. Very quickly, her strong involvement in the scientific life of the Institute’s NMR platform led her to work with many people in a wide variety of fields in chemistry and its interfaces with biology, health, ecology, etc.
She quickly assumed responsibility for the solid-state NMR part of the platform and took part in several scientific projects focusing on the structural characterisation of large protein complexes using solid-state NMR. These projects resulted in publications in high-impact journals, for example on the dynamics of complex biomolecular assemblies.
At the same time, Infranalytics* gave her responsibility for relations with industrial partners. "Working at CNRS allows me to optimise the performance of the most powerful NMR spectrometers in France. And industrial activities will lead me to subjects with direct applications in everyday life", an important point that Alicia is keen to emphasise.
She guides industrial partners among the different intruments of the Infranalytics infrastructure, offering them the best expertise and analytical techniques for a wide range of issues. More than 140 contacts with private partners have already led to 28 collaborations, 17 of which involved the signing of legal contracts drawn up by Alicia herself. A business developer...
The individual Crystal Medal rewards women and men working as research support in Joint Research Units, who, through their creativity, technical expertise and sense of innovation, contribute, alongside researchers, to the advancement of knowledge and the excellence of French research. In 2025, the CNRS awarded 34 crystal medals.
* Infranalytics is the national infrastructure set up in 2022 to bring together state-of-the-art NMR, RPE and FT-ICR-MS analytical instruments with very high magnetic fields (18 research units and 13 sites in France).