François Lacôte and Georges Palais elected
Engineers of the Year following Alstoms rail
speed record

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This highly regarded prize in the French engineering
community awards the achievements of François Lacôte
and Georges Palais in the management of the design,
manufacturing, testing and final successful run of the V150
trainset, which broke the world speed record, achieving 574.8
km/h on 3 April 2007. Upon receiving their award in a ceremony
in Paris, on 13 December, they acknowledged the people,
dedication and skills that had contributed to the record
achievement.

The magazines “Usine Nouvelle” and “Industrie
et Technologies” have announced the winners of the
“Prix des Ingénieurs de l’année”
(“Engineer of the Year”) award, organised in
partnership with France’s National Council of Engineers
and Scientists (CNISF) and taking place in 2007 for the fourth
year in succession. The award is designed to honour exceptional
engineers, and to showcase a profession that is still poorly
understood by many people.

François Lacôte is a qualified bridge & highway
engineer, having studied at the “Ecole
Polytechnique” and “Ecole Nationale des Ponts et
Chaussées”. He has been heading up the Technical
(R&D and innovation) department at Alstom Transport since
the year 2000.

Also a qualified engineer, Georges Palais studied engineering
at the “Conservatoire National des Arts et
Métiers”. A project manager on very high speed rail
travel, his achievements include implementation of the
AGV™ (Automotrice Grande Vitesse) concept, the
4th-generation very high speed train designed and developed
entirely by Alstom.

In receiving their award, they paid tribute to all those people
who had worked to extremely tight deadlines to produce the
train that set the record. They also mentioned the great work
of RFF and SNCF.

For further information, visit:
http://www.lesingenieursdelannee.com/