Roland Lehoucq

Biography

Roland Lehoucq is an astrophysicist at CEA’s astrophysics department in Saclay. He teaches at the Ecole polytechnique and the Institut d’études politiques. Passionate about disseminating scientific knowledge, he is a contributor to the monthly Pour la Science (Science et Fiction column, with Jean-Sébastien Steyer) and has been writing a science column for the science fiction magazine Bifrost for 19 years. He has written a large number of popular articles in all the scientific magazines aimed at the general public, and gives some fifty lectures a year. He has also published or contributed to 30 books and collaborated on several exhibitions at the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie (Paris), the Palais de la découverte (Paris) and the Cité de l’espace (Toulouse). Since 2012, he has been president of Utopiales, the international science fiction festival in Nantes. In 2010, he was awarded the Prix Diderot-Curien by the Association des musées et centers pour le développement de la culture scientifique, technique et industrielle (AMCSTI). In January 2014, he was awarded the Chevalier des Palmes académiques.

Conference: Can we really travel to the future?

There was a time when time was thought to be the same for everyone. In 1905, Einstein published his theory of special relativity, which revolutionized our understanding of space and time. In 1915, his general relativity profoundly altered our understanding of gravitation, which became intimately linked to space-time. By deciphering some science-fiction films, we’ll illustrate and explain revolutionary concepts that date back over a century. They will help us to understand how these two theories underpin the workings of satellite positioning systems, and to what extent they enable us to travel into the future…