Bénédicte Menez
{{short description|French geomicrobiologist}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Bénédicte Menez
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| nationality = French
| alma_mater = Paris Diderot University
| occupation = Geomicrobiologist,
Institute of Earth Physics in Paris
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| known_for = Irène Joliot-Curie Prize
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Bénédicte Menez is a French geomicrobiologist and university professor in Earth Sciences at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris. In 2012, she received the Irène Joliot-Curie Prize in the “Young Female Scientist” category for her work."Remise du Prix Irène Joliot-Curie 2012 : trois femmes d'exception à l'honneur - ESR : enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr". www.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr (in French). Retrieved 2022-06-20.
Life and work
Bénédicte Menez earned both her doctorate in 1999 and her habilitation in 2009 at Paris Diderot University, also known as University of Paris 7.{{Cite web |title=Id Ref, Ménez, Bénédicte |url=https://www.idref.fr/08904326X |access-date=2022-06-22 |website=ID ref.fr |language=fr}}{{Cite web |title=Menez {{!}} INSTITUT DE PHYSIQUE DU GLOBE DE PARIS |url=https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?url=http://www.ipgp.fr/fr/menez-benedicte#federation=archive.wikiwix.com |access-date=2022-06-22 |website=archive.wikiwix.com}}
Menez leads the Current and Primitive Geobiosphere team at the Institute of Earth Physics in Paris, where her group has integrated results from spectroscopy, microscopy, microbiology and geochemistry to study interactions between microorganisms and rocks that she characterizes using microimaging and spectroscopy techniques. Since 2001, she has been developing strategies to study the deep biosphere, the intraterrestrial life that develops in the depths of the Earth's crust.
Specifically, Menez has used synchrotron imaging to obtain results concerning the reaction between bacteria and geological storage of carbon dioxide ({{CO2}}). She has shown that the impact of biomass pro-based on {{CO2}} storage could be modulated by the cell death induced by the precipitation of solid carbonate.
By studying the deep ecosystems found in peridotites, rocks of the oceanic lithosphere, she has been able to highlight the presence of microbial niches in environments where their presence and their impact on the Earth's chemistry had not been demonstrated before. The altered peridotites reside on very thick strata of endogenous organic carbon of biological origin. This active and varied intraterrestrial life "contains a considerable biomass and is thus a major component of our planet" and allows fundamental research on the origin of the life. Also, because of its applied aspects, "it has potential in the field of new energy technologies, including the storage of {{CO2}}."
Awards and distinctions
2008: Holweck, Grelaud and Guido-Triossi Prize awarded by the Academy of Sciences.{{Cite web |title=Prix Paul Fernand Holweck, Léon Grelaud, Marie Guido Triossi : lauréats - Prix de l'Académie des sciences |url=https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?url=http://www.academie-sciences.fr/archivage_site/activite/prix/laureat_holweck10.pdf/index.html#federation=archive.wikiwix.com |access-date=2022-06-20 |website=archive.wikiwix.com |language=fr}}
2012: Irène Joliot-Curie Prize, “Young Female Scientist” category.{{Cite web |title=PRIX DE LA JEUNE FEMME SCIENTIFIQUE |url=https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fcache.media.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr%2Ffile%2F2012%2F16%2F0%2FDP_IJC_2012_234160.pdf |access-date=2022-06-20 |language=fr}}
Selected publications
In publications, her name is spelled as Menez or Ménez.
- Menez, B., Philippot, P., Bonnin-Mosbah, M., Simionovici, A., & Gibert, F. (2002). Analysis of individual fluid inclusions using synchrotron X-ray fluorescence microprobe: progress toward calibration for trace elements. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 66(4), 561–576.
- Ménez, B., Pasini, V., & Brunelli, D. (2012). Life in the hydrated suboceanic mantle. Nature Geoscience, 5(2), 133–137.
- Trias, R., Ménez, B., le Campion, P., Zivanovic, Y., Lecourt, L., Lecoeuvre, A., ... & Gérard, E. (2017). High reactivity of deep biota under anthropogenic {{CO2}} injection into basalt. Nature communications, 8(1), 1–14.
- Ménez, B., Pisapia, C., Andreani, M., Jamme, F., Vanbellingen, Q. P., Brunelle, A., ... & Réfrégiers, M. (2018). Abiotic synthesis of amino acids in the recesses of the oceanic lithosphere. Nature, 564(7734), 59–63.
- Ménez, B. (2020). Abiotic hydrogen and methane: Fuels for life. Elements: An International Magazine of Mineralogy, Geochemistry, and Petrology, 16(1), 39–46.
References
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Category:Year of birth missing (living people)
Category:Date of birth missing (living people)
Category:Place of birth missing (living people)
Category:21st-century French scientists
Category:21st-century French women
Category:French microbiologists
Category:French women biologists