Étienne Klein

Étienne Klein (born 1958) is a French physicist and philosopher of science, born in 1958. A graduate of École Centrale Paris, he holds a DEA (Master of Advanced Studies) in theoretical physics, as well as a Ph.D. in philosophy of science and an accreditation to supervise research (HDR).
Profile
Étienne Klein is a Research director at the Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA). He is currently head of the Laboratoire des Recherches sur les Sciences de la Matière (LARSIM), a research laboratory belonging to the CEA and located in Saclay near Paris. He took part in several major projects, such as the adjustment of a method of isotopic separation involving the use of lasers, and the study of a particle accelerator with superconducting cavities. At CERN he was involved in the design of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
He taught quantum physics and particle physics at Centrale Paris for several years and currently teaches philosophy of science. He is a specialist in the question of time in physics and has written a number of essays on the subject. He is also a member of the Conseil d'analyse de la société, of the conseil scientifique de la Cité des Sciences, of the Conseil de l'Office parlementaire d'évaluation des choix scientifiques et technologiques (OPECST), of the French Academy of Technologies and of the Conseil d'Orientation de l'Institut Diderot. Every Thursday morning he presents a radio chronicle, Le Monde selon Étienne Klein, as well as La Conversation scientifique every Saturday afternoon, on the French public station France Culture.
Étienne Klein practises mountain-climbing and other endurance sports.
Plagiarism affair
In December 2016, Science magazine, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, reported that Popular French physicist Étienne Klein was responsible of a plagiarism, his work was said to be plagiarizing the novelist Stefan Zweig and other authors.
Chorizo tweet
On July 22, 2022, Klein tweeted a photo that he claimed was an image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope of Proxima Centuri, the closest star to our solar system. A few days later, he admitted that the photo was actually of a slice of chorizo against a black background. He described his tweet as a "form of amusement" and urged his 92,000 Twitter followers to "be wary of arguments from authority".
Distinctions and awards
Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques
Award for the best scientific book of the year 1993 in Germany for Conversations avec le Sphinx, les paradoxes en physique
Prix Jean Perrin for popularizing science from the Société française de physique in 1997
Grammaticakis-Neumann Award from the Académie des sciences in 2000
Award for the best book of scientific literature of the year for L’Atome au pied du mur et autres nouvelles
Prix Budget from the Académie des sciences morales et politiques in 2000
Prix « La science se livre » 2003 for Les Tactiques de Chronos
Prix Jean Rostand in 2004
Prix Thorel for Galilée et les Indiens. Allons-nous liquider la science ? in 2008
Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur, promotion du 1er janvier 2010
Prix Thorel from the Académie des sciences morales et politiques in 2010
Bibliography
Conversations avec le Sphinx, les paradoxes en physique, 1991
Regards sur la matière. Des quanta et des choses, avec Bernard d'Espagnat, 1993
Le Temps, 1995
Le Temps et sa flèche [actes du colloque], dir. Étienne Klein and Michel Spiro, 1996
L’Atome au pied du mur et autres nouvelles, 2000
L’Unité de la physique, 2000
La Quête de l’unité. L’Aventure de la physique, with Marc Lachièze-Rey, 2000
Sous l’atome, les particules
La Physique quantique
Trésor des sciences : dictionnaire des concepts, co-author (dir. Michel Serres)
Moi, U235 noyau radioactif, with Bernard Bonin and Jean-Marc Cavedon, 2001
Le temps existe-t-il ?, Collection Les petites pommes du savoir, 2002
La science nous menace-t-elle ?, 2003
Les Tactiques de Chronos, 2003
Petit voyage dans le monde des quanta, 2004
Il était sept fois la révolution, Albert Einstein et les autres, 2005
Le Temps qui passe, 2006
Le facteur temps ne sonne jamais deux fois, 2007
Les Secrets de la matière, 2008
Galilée et les Indiens. Allons-nous liquider la science ?, 2008
Pourquoi je suis devenu chercheur scientifique, 2009
Discours sur l’origine de l’univers, 2010
La Science en jeu, written with Jean-Michel Besnier, Hervé Le Guyader and Heinz Wismann, 2010
Le Small bang des nanotechnologies, 2011
Anagrammes renversantes, ou le sens caché du monde, with Jacques Perry-Salkow, 2011
Rugby quantique, with Jonny Wilkinson and Jean Illiopoulos, 2011
D'où viennent les idées (scientifiques)?, 2013
En cherchant Majorana. Le physicien absolu, 02/2015
Y a-t-il eu un instant zéro ?, 03/2015
Le pays qu'habitait Albert Einstein, 2016
Tout n'est pas relatif, 2017
Sauvons le progrès, dialogue avec Denis Lafay, 2017
Matière à contredire, essai de philo-physique, 2018
Le goût du vrai, 2020
Filmography
Quels temps font-ils ?, co-author with Marc Lachièze-Rey, film directed by Hervé Lièvre, 2001
References
1958 births
Scientists from Paris
21st-century French philosophers
École Centrale Paris alumni
French science writers
French physicists
Philosophers of physics
Theoretical physicists
Living people
Science communicators
People associated with CERN
Officers of the Ordre national du Mérite