A technological tool specializing in lightning studies and protection systems, the LIRI is also a formidable showcase for French know-how.
The violence and speed of a lightning discharge make it a natural event whose mechanisms and specific features are difficult to understand. And yet, it’s at the heart of many news headlines. Lightning strike records are being broken all the time. Accidentology is progressing statistically. The study of lightning physics and the ongoing development of protection systems are a real priority.
LIRI regularly receives visits from foreign scientists and engineers. This enables them to benefit from the research center’s resources (notably its High Voltage Laboratory) and to gain a better understanding of the lightning phenomenon.
As lightning specialists in their own countries, our visitors find at LIRI several R&D engineers with remarkable experience in this field… sometimes even discovering wonderful human stories. Such was the case this week with a visit to LIRI from a partner from Panama… who studied in France for 5 years at an engineering school in Lille. And who, at the time, unknowingly sat on the same benches as one of LIRI’s scientific directors!
Sharing knowledge, establishing international research programs and contributing to scientific information are LIRI’s key missions. When this sharing also takes place in the context of wonderful human encounters, the mission is perfectly fulfilled!
