The Institute of Physics of CNRS has appointed Clément Sire as its Scientific Outreach Ambassador for the year 2026. In this role, he will take part in events coordinated by the CNRS across France, engaging with a wide range of audiences, including high school students, teacher training programs, and institutional events (see the official announcement on the website of CNRS Physique and the associated bio of Clément Sire; in French).
Alongside his research work, Clément Sire has been actively involved for many years in sharing scientific knowledge with broader audiences. The programs, titles, abstracts, PDFs, and sometimes videos of his outreach talks can be found under the “Vulgarisation” tab on his webpage in French at the LPT (see also the less complete “Popularization” tab on his webpage in English).
As part of his outreach efforts, Clément Sire often presents his most recent research on collective behavior in animal and human groups, adapting his talks to different audiences, such as schools, hospitals, psychiatric centers, nursing homes, associations, and public science events.
His presentations cover a wide range of topics, including fish schools, their interactions with robots, artificial intelligence, virtual reality systems, and the implementation of fish-inspired social behaviors in drones.
When addressing human group dynamics, he explores topics such as game theory, how groups reach consensus, and the roles of cooperation and deception—often enriching his talks with interactive social experiments involving the audience.
Finally, he also offers talks on diverse subjects, such as plant morphology, magic tricks based on simple mathematical principles (“mathmagic!”), probabilities in everyday life, and the connections between fundamental science and its technological applications.