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Researchers Develop Ultrahigh Energy Density Supercapacitors
in Communication of the ACM:
http://cacm.acm.org/news/97720-researchers-develop-ultrahigh-energy-density-supercapacitors/fulltext
MoreInternational research team develops ultrahigh-power energy storage devices
http://www.physorg.com/news201272263.html
Launching of the website www.cuisinome.com from the research team “21st Century Cuisine, Nutrition, and Genetics in France and the United States” (UCLA/EHESS)
The team of the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) launched their website showing the history and curriculum of their research “21st Century Cuisine, Nutrition, and Genetics in France and the United States”, their publications and a presentation of the researchers.
More on : http://www.cuisinome.com/
Conference on transatlantic cooperation in higher education in Montpellier (04/05/2011)
Presentation / Material of the Conference in Montpelllier held on the April, the 4th :
The key players of the transatlantic cooperation in higher education attended to the conference: Alan Goodman, President and CEO of IIE, representatives of the French Ministry of foreign affairs and Ministry of Higher Education and Research, Cultural and Scientific Counselors at the French Embassy, the President of the PRES Montpellier and Professors of American universities. The conference was opened by the President of the PRES Montpellier, Mrs Dominique Deville de Perrière. Two panels were organized : examples of best practices of the scientific and academic transatlantic cooperation and tools at a national level for higher education and scientific collaboration.
“Five years ago, American Universities were reluctant to cooperate with French Institutions, and the latter could not cooperate. After four years of reforms by the French Government, French Universities have the financial capacity to launch new sets of French-American cooperation. It is also interesting for American Universities to work together with France where the quality of the education and research is world-recognized among all the fields”. Antonin Baudry, Cultural Counselor at the French Embassy in the US.
PUF contribute to implements fructuous bridges in research in training in the scene of cooperation in higher education between France and the US. “We fund double diplomas, cross training, research for fellows and students” explains Pascal Delisle, Executif Director of PUF and Cultural Attaché.
Programme of the conference : Programme Conference PUF Montpellier (in french)
Material of the Speakers at the Conference :
Best Practices Examples, panel hosted by Patrick Louchouarn, Professor of environmental Science at Texas A&M University and Member of the PUF Jury :
Presentation of the Caltech-Polytechnique partnership Dual Master Degree in aerospace industry and aeronautics, Patrick Huerre, Laboratoire d’Hydrodynamique – LadHyX,Ecole Polytechnique :
Patrick Carroll, Professor at Université de Monptllier 2 / Inserm : The large maf protein family in the development and the physiopathology of somatosensory circuitry (Université Montpellier 2 / Salk Institute partnership)
Dimitri Pavlidis (Professor of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology, Darmstadt University of Technology Director, International Relations, IEMN)
Transatlantic Dual Degree and Research Programs in Micro and Nanotechnologies
Academic cooperation and the national level : Ministry and Institutions, panel hosted by Christophe Laux, Ecole Centrale, Paris and co-President of the PUF Jury
Minh-Hà Pham-Delegue, Direction Europe de la Recherche et Coopération Internationale (DERCI) et Coopération avec les Etats-Unis
CNRS – Presentation DERCI (in french)
Arnaud Roujou de Boubée, Executive Director of the Fulbright France Comission :
Fulbright France -The French-American commission for the academic and cultural exchanges (in french)
Annick Suzor-Weiner, Scientific Counselor at the French Embassy in the U.S., “Mobility of (young) researchers atthe doctoral level”
Mobility of young researchers at the doctoral level
Univ-Link Award 2011 from the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research : Results
During her April 2011 trip to the United States, Valérie Pécresse, the Minister of Higher Education and Research, announced that the Université of Rennes 1 won the “Label d’Excellence” of the French-American academic cooperation “Univ-Link” for the year 2011. Launched by the Minister in June 2010 when she visited Washington D.C., this first award comes with a grant of 40,000€ from the Ministry, to encourage the long term, structured, and deepened academic cooperation.
Valérie Pécresse emphasized on the outstanding quality of this ambitious project regarding the advanced materials for energy and optics, with three dimensions: student mobility, dual-degrees and joint research projects. She pointed out that this Partner University Fund (PUF) partnership distanced itself from the others with an advanced cooperation in PhD under joint supervision, the regular exchange of students and post doc, and the emphasis on co-publications. She also saluted the project of creation of an “Unité Mixte Internationale” aimed to reinforce and structure the joint research.
The University of Rennes 1 has already a PUF grant with the Université of Lille 1 and l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Ingénieurs de Caen, with three PhD under joint supervision with University of Arizona (“dual-PhD”). In total, more than 40 students will participate to those programs and enjoy the exchanges between the two institutions.
Learn more on : Communiqué – Ministry of Higher Education and Research
The Institute of Cognitive Studies (Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris), PUF laureate 2009, wins a Labex from the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research
The Institute of Cognitive studies at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, PUF laureate 2009 with UCLA with the project “Theoretical / Experimental Linguistic Cognition Advanced Studies” (TELCAS), won a Labex from the French Ministery of Higher Education, as part of the program “Investissement d’Avenir”.
This will enable our grantees to participate to the creation of the Institute of Cognitive Studies (ICS) of Ecole normale superieure. It will be a unique interdisciplinary center conducting research and offering advanced courses in Cognitive Science (the study of higher mental functions such as perception, memory, reasoning, language, emotions, action, social skills, etc). The ICS will be located at the prestigious Ecole normale supérieure (ENS, Paris). It will promote fundamental research, teaching and translational research on human cognition, at the interface between humanities and social sciences, life sciences, and engineering and computer sciences.
More on the Institute of Cognitive Studies : Institute of Cognitive Studies
18th-19th April – INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE “SEPTEMBER 11-12: THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE STATE FACED WITH TERRORISM”
The conference “September 11-12 : the individual and the state face with terrorism” will be hold at the Embassy of France on the 18th and 19th April. These two days are organized by Denis Peschanski, PUF grantee 2009 for the project “Memory and Memorialization” and are sponsored by le Mémorial de Caen, NYU, le CNRS, le PUF, 9/11 Memorial Musem, FACE, l’ENS Cachan. The specialists of this interdisciplinary topic will lead the 4 sequences of the conference will be “The psyche put to the test of terrorism”, “The individual/society indetermination”, “Big narratives and individual memory” and “Reaction of the state”.
Free admission
Schedule : Schedule Conference Washington
Registration : Conference Washington Registration
Interview of Jeffrey Zink (UCLA), PUF Laureate 2009-2012
We had the chance to meet Jeffrey Zink, Professor at the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, California Nanosystems Institute at UCLA. Together with Jean-Olivier Durand, Professor at the Université Montpellier 2, they are PUF laureate 2009 with their project “One and two-photon Nanovalves”.
Could you describe in few words your project?
The project is to design nanomachines that would be able to deliver anticancer drugs. In order to operate machines, we have to provide a stimulus that is light energy. Our French collaborators are experts in the field of two photons activation which means that light that would penetrate deeply in the tissues would also be able to activate the nanomachines.
So our cooperation is that we have the machines available, they have the molecule that are excellent at absorbing the two photons light, and by combining this we are able to use the light to operate our machine.
One of my students, Travis, spent 3 months in Montpellier and worked on the synthesis of these 2 photons molecules and combined them with the machine. And right now we have Jonas Croissant, a student from Montpellier, who is working for seven months in our laboratory, and he is learning how to make the machine and attache the various molecules. So we have a good collaboration that has already started. In total, there have been three French students who have been in my laboratory, and my US student from my group that has been in the French lab.
How did you get to know PUF?
It was Jean-Olivier Durand who recommended me to apply to PUF in order to bring our group closer together.
Do you have new dynamics that would have been otherwise difficult to approach?
Yes, for successful collaboration, the two partners have to have sincere mutual interest. We have been very interested in the machines, and wanted to use this aspect of light activation. Jean-Olivier Durand has been expert in designing two molecules and wanted to be able to have an application. So by working together, we have the strength of the two groups, something that neither of us would have done alone otherwise.
What kind of difficulties did you have while implementing this partnership?
Oh you don’t want to hear that! (laughs) The French democracy is so dense!
Otherwise the PUF program itself is very nice, and there is no problem to find the funding and to get organize. As I said two of our scientists have spent time in my lab together with my colleague Fuyu Tamanoi, and the student exchange is working out very well too. So right now, that part is all going smoothly.
As you know, University of California would not easily give joint degrees. UCLA wants to give degrees at UCLA and not somewhere else. As we heard before, this is the philosophy of American Universities and not the PUF program.
I would say, for the aspect of education, in terms of the lab training, the experiments and new methodology is going very beautifully. We don’t have formal classes with lectures. That part of education is the hands on education, the experiments with machines is going very well. This experimental aspect is very strong.
Did you meet new opportunities?
As part of this overall collaboration some of the experiments will be done in Rennes were Jean-Olivier has a collaboration apart of PUF. So my students will go there to do experiments. Also, Fuyu Tamanoi and Andre with whom I work on the nanomachines and a Professor of northwetersn, this strong big group is working together. The strongest ties right now are between UCLA and Montpellier.
What about the language differences?
The French students are very well trained and the Americans try to learn! The language of scientists is almost universal. So in terms of talking chemistry and technical things, there is almost no problem with language. The rest is fun and education , learning, deal with foreign people.
What are your new perspectives?
The French team has been successful with getting and ANR grant for this project and my application is done with the NFS in the U.S. We are pursuing other funding with this project to be able to pay for chemicals, equipment and research. It looks like all the equipment is working. So after all this experiment the next step is to apply it to living creature and hopefully help people with anticancer therapy.
UCLA doesn’t have patterns that involved two partners. So if the two-photons projects works, there will be no problem to have a pattern that involves both UCLA and Montpellier.
Report on the conference on transatlantic cooperation in higher education
The 4th of April was organized the conference on transatlantic cooperation. Following this link you will find a report on this afternoon in Montpellier including interviews and extracts of the conferences (in french).
Report Conference PUF / PRES Montpellier
Conference on Transatlantic higher education and scientific cooperation (PRES Montpellier / PUF)
On the 4th of April, PUF and University of Montpellier (PRES) will organize a conference on Transatlantic higher education and scientific cooperation at the Université de Montpellier. Members of the PUF commitee members, Allan Goodman (President of IIE), many representatives of the ministeries and embassy, and of course American and French professors will attend to this event and will speak on the subject.
This is an open event, you can find more details on the PDF program : Conference PUF