An Australian scientist has been awarded the Legion of Honour for his help developing France's space programme.
Professor Kurt Lambeck of the Australian National University in Canberra spent eight years in France working on satellites, gravity fields and ocean tides in the 1970s.
"It was a time when geophysics was going ahead in leaps and bounds," he said. "This whole plate tectonics hypothesis - it was very exciting at the time.
"It was just a good time to be doing science in the earth sciences."
The ABC reports Professor Lambeck became the president of the Australian Academy of Science upon his return to Australia.
