I am Noelle Gogneau, CNRS researcher director working in the Material Dept. of the Center for Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies from Paris-Saclay University. I have an expertise on the growth of III-V and III-N semiconductors by MOVPE and PA-MBE.
I received my Ph.D. degree in Physics in 2004. My PhD project was focused on the growth of GaN/AlN quantum dots by PA-MBE, with the development of a new epitaxial technique named Modified Stransky-Krastanow growth mode. After a post-doctoral position at the Laboratory of Physics of Nanostructures – EPFL – Lausanne, Switzerland from 2004 to 2006, centered on the growth of (Ga,Al)As/GaAs nanowires and quantum dots on patterned substrate by MOVPE, I joined the Laboratory for Photonic and Nanostructures as CNRS researcher in 2006. My researches were focus on the selective growth of In(P)As/InP quantum dots on nano-patterned substrate by MOVPE.
From July 2011, my research activities are centered on the growth of III-Nitrides nanowires by PA-MBE and their characterization for Nano-Energy applications, with an emphasis on the electric/piezoelectric properties of 1D-nanostructures for the development of piezoelectric devices. I have a strong expertise in the III-N NWs growth and the piezoelectric phenomena involving at nanometer scale. Through my activities, I collaborate with different national and international groups. Since October 2023, I coordinate the interdisciplinary “Nanoscience Institute” from Paris-Saclay University (PSINano).
From September 2021, I am the chair of the European COST Action OPERA – “European Network for Innovative and Advanced Epitaxy” (2021-25; https://cost-opera.eu/).
I’m a curious person. I like (and I need) constantly learning new things, discovering new places and people. Novelty is my driving force. Research allows me to bring all these aspects together, through the new materials/devices/concepts I work on; and the people I meet and collaborate with, in France, Europe and around the world.
I am a dynamic person. I like to say that I lead four parallel lives: my life as a researcher, as a mother/family, as a woman and my own life (made up of those little moments just for me that allow me to recharge my batteries). It is a question of organization to find the time to make all these lives cohabit. But I have to admit that I didn’t find my balance until I accepted some part of frustration in all these interchangeable lives. Once I accepted that, I was able to move on. And also, thanks to my husband and two daughters, who are extremely comprehensive with the passionate person I am.
Evolving as a woman in physics/technology is not an easy way all the days. I didn’t have a mentor and thus I had to learn how to find my place, my equilibrium while remaining the woman I am. The “prove yourself first” sentences when I was young, and the belittling remarks (unfounded or worse out of context) made in front of colleagues to which I was and still am entitled today are part of my experience. Although hurtful, these experiences were/are formative in making me the researcher I am today.
Today, I’m a fighter who believes in the beauty of science, a science that cannot exist without the richness of research carried out jointly by men and women.