Dr Pierre E. Levitz is senior scientist at CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique). In 2001, he joined the Condensed Matter Physics Department of Ecole Polytechnique located at Palaiseau, France. His scientific interests are focused on the physics of confinement in disordered interfacial media including the following topics:

- Morphology, topology and 3D imagery of porous materials (catalysts, membranes, soil, bones and biological tissues)

- Transport and dynamics of confined fluids and colloidal complex fluids.

- Phase transitions in confinement.

He is the author or the co-author of more than 130 publications and/or book chapters.

            Born in October 1954 at Paris, Levitz received a first PhD in Material Sciences (Thèse de Docteur-Ingenieur) in 1979 from the University Pierre et Marie Curie of Paris. This work was concerning the local structure of mineral glasses. After a two years post-doctoral position at the French Institut of Petroleum, he joined the CNRS as a junior scientist and moved to the CNRS in Orléans. He obtained a second PhD (Thése d’Etat) in 1985 on the structure and the thermodynamics of surfactants adsorption layers at the solid-liquid interface, under the supervision of Pr Fripiat. In 1985, he went to USA for a Post-doctoral position at Exxon, Annandale N.J. where he got an invited scientist position from 1987 to 1991 (four months a year). In 1993, he became a CNRS senior scientist at the Centre de Recherche sur la Matière Divisée in Orléans,France where he headed the Complex Fluids and Porous Systems Group from 1994 to 2000. In 2001, he moved to the Condensed Matter physics Department of Ecole Polytechnique located at Palaiseau, France where he  is actually working.

 Pierre Levitz can be reached by Email at  pierre.levitz@polytechnique.edu

Some representative publications.

  1. Fluorescence decay study of the adsorption of non-ionic surfactants at the solid-liquid interface.1.Structure of the adsorption layer on a hydrophilic solid. P.Levitz, H.Van Damme, D.Keravis; J.Phys.Chem, 2228-2235,Vol 88,(1984)
  2. Direct energy transfer in restricted geometries as a probe of the pore morphology of silica.P.Levitz, J.M.Drake;Phys.Rev.Lett, 686-689,Vol 58,(1987)
  3. Aggregative adsorption of nonionic surfactants onto hydrophilic solid/water: Relation with bulk micellization.P.Levitz; Langmuir,1595-1608,Vol 7,(1991)
  4. Porous vycor glass:The microstructure as probed by electron miscroscopy,direct energy transfer, small angle scattering and molecular adsorption. P.Levitz, G.Ehret, S.K.Sinha, J.M.Drake; J.Chem.Phys, 6151-6161Vol 95,(1991)
  5. Chemical and biological microstructures as probed by dynamic processes J.M.Drake, J.Klafter, P.Levitz, Science,1574-1579,Vol 251,(1991)
  6. Disordered porous solids: From chord distribution to small angle scattering, .P.Levitz, D.Tchoubar, J.Phys I , vol 2, 771 (1992)
  7. Phase diagram of colloidal dispersions of anisotropic charged particules: equilibrium properties, structure and rheology of laponite suspensions. A. Mourchid, A. Delville, J. Lambard, E. Lécollier, P. Levitz.  Langmuir, 11, pp. 1942-1950. (1995)
  8. From Knudsen diffusion to Levy Walk. P. Levitz. Europhysics Letters. Vol 39, pp 593-598, (1997)
  9. Liquid-solid transition of laponite suspensions at very low ionic strength: Long range electrostatic stabilisation of anisotropic colloids. P. Levitz E. Lécolier, A. Mourchid, A. Delville, S. Lyonnard, Europhysics letters, 45, 52-57 (2000)
  10. Statistical modeling of Pore network. P. Levitz, Chap 2, p 37. In Handbook of Porous Media edited by F. Schuth, K. Sing and J. Weitkamp  Wiley-VCH (2002)
  11. Universal nuclear spin relaxation and long range order in nematics strongly confined in mass fractal silica gels N. Leon, J.P Korb, I Bonalde, P Levitz, Phys. Rev. Lett ., 92, 195504 (2004).