Marie-Louise Saboungi

Marie-Louise Saboungi is a Lebanese-born American condensed matter physicist at the Institut de Minéralogie, de Physique des Matériaux et de Cosmochimie (IMPMC), Sorbonne University, Paris, France.

Early life and education Saboungi was born January 1, 1948, in Lebanon. She studied Mathematics and Physics at the Lebanese University in Beirut and obtained a Doctorat d’Etat in Physics at Aix-Marseille University, France in 1973, studying the statistical thermodynamics of molten salts. From 2007 to 2011 she was also Program Officer at Agence Nationale de la Recherche.

She has also been a Distinguished Professor of Physics at University of Orléans in 2002–2011, and was appointed Distinguished Visiting Professor in Soochow University in 2014.

Research Saboungi's work focuses on complex soft materials, including ionic liquids and aqueous electrolytes, with a view to applications in energy and biotechnology. She also studies silver chalcogenides, which display many fascinating phenomena including fast-ion conduction at higher temperatures, linear magnetoresistance over a broad range of magnetic fields, and topological insulator behavior.

Awards and honours 1990 – Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 1991 – Award for Leadership in the Professions, YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago 1992 – Fellow of the American Physical Society 2000, 2014 – Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science 2007 – Fellow, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation 2014 – Doctor Honoris Causa, University of the Andes, Mérida, Venezuela

Selected publications Large magnetoresistance in non-magnetic silver chalcogenides, Nature 390, 57–60 (1997), Electron distribution in water, J. Chem. Phys. 112, 9206 (2000), Improving reinforcement of natural rubber by networking of activated carbon nanotubes, Carbon, 46, 7, June 2008, 1037–1045, The Structure of Aqueous Guanidinium Chloride Solutions, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126, 37, 11462–11470,