Dr. Mellier is one of the pioneers in astrophysical and cosmological studies of the gravitational lens effect. He has notably co-discovered the first giant luminous arc in galaxy clusters and demonstrated its gravitational lensing nature by measuring its redshift. He is also a world-leading expert in wide field weak lensing surveys. He is currently the head of the Terapix data center. His team presented the first significant measurement of cosmic shear (the VIRMOS-Descart lensing survey at CFHT), a new tool to study the mass distribution in the Universe which thus opened a new window on observational cosmology. Dr. Mellier is involved in very large new cosmic shear surveys, the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey that started in 2002 at CFHT, and the KIlo Degree Survey to be carried out with the new VLT Survey Telescope and for both of which about 500 nights have been granted. Furthermore, he will be strongly engaged in planning of the next generation survey telescopes, e.g. in form of an ESA satellite mission. 

The Jean Ricard Prize of the French Physical Society (SFP) is a mark of honor and encouragement in recognition of a remarkable and original scientific work in the field of physical sciences, be it theoretical or experimental. Some famous recipiendaries of the Jean Ricard Prize include:

Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (1971), Georges Charpak (1973), Jean-Loup Puget (1989), Albert Fert (1994) and Françoise Brochard (1998).