Thursday, November 24, 2022, during a ceremony at the Residence of the French Embassy in Haiti, Ambassador Fabrice Mauriès presented the insignia of "Knight in the National Order of Merit" to Professor Éric Calais for his committed humanism and courage that he demonstrated in Haiti as elsewhere in the world.

Éric Calais is a French geologist-geophysicist, born in 1964, internationally recognized practitioner of high precision spatial geodesy (GPS and InSAR radar interferometry) and pioneer of its applications to the measurement of seismic deformations at the borders of tectonic plates and in their interiors. .

In 2003, he started his program of geodetic measurements in Haiti. These will allow him to show as early as 2007 that the so-called "Enriquillo" fault - crossing Port-au-Prince, was capable of causing an earthquake of magnitude 7, which tragically proved to be true on January 12, 2010. Eric Calais has co-led the United Nations task force following the earthquake in Haiti and then worked there as scientific adviser for the UN in the context of post-earthquake reconstruction from 2010 to 2012.

Since 2010, Professor Calais has accompanied many young Haitians in the pursuit of their doctorate abroad (including France) and many of whom have returned to Haiti at the end of their thesis, and who were present on the field for the scientific response to the earthquake of August 14, 2021 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-34479-haiti-flash-magnitude-72-earthquake-in-the-nippes-updated-10am.html

IH/ iciHaiti