The New York University Center for International Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences (UMI CNRS-NYU) organizes a public symposium entitled “Aurignacian Genius: Art, Technology and Society of the first Modern Humans in Europe” on Tuesday April 9, 2013. This symposium will be held at New York University (the Kimmel Center, Room 914, 60 Washington Square South, New York) from 1 pm until 4:30 pm on April 9. Co-sponsored by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and the Partner University Fund, this public session aims at bringing the current scientific knowledge concerning the origins of the arts in Europe accessible to the general public. Program and registration form: Aurignacian Genius General Public (PDF) You are welcome attend this public session by returning the registration form to: valerie.dubois@nyu.edu by April 1st, 2013.

PUF and Sanofi are also glad to re-launch their joint call for projects for partnerships on Public Health. Administered by the Partner University Fund (PUF), this initiative includes the selection of one partnership in the field of Public Health and more specifically the access to medicine in emerging countries. This special call for projects follows the regular application forms and guidelines. PUF and Sanofi will fund up to 60% of the cost of the selected project, in the limit of $160,000 per year for the cohort 2013-2016. The initiative is made possible by a generous grant from Sanofi.

2013 Call for projects is now closed. 

Funding decisions will be announced during spring 2013 for the 2013-2014 academic year.

For more information please contact the PUF team:

puf.scac@ambafrance-us.org
Tel: 212 439 1463
Fax: 212 439 1455

Administered by the Partner University Fund (PUF), this initiative includes the selection of one partnership in the field of Cyber-Security. This special call for projects follows the regular application forms and guidelines. PUF promotes innovative collaborations of excellence in research and education between French and American institutions of higher education. The modalities of transatlantic collaboration range from joint research and publications to the development of shared curricula and the establishment of joint and dual degrees. They include various forms of mobility for students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty and researchers.

PUF and Thomson Reuters will fund up to 30% of the cost of the selected project, in the limit of $80,000 per year. Project proposals must be submitted by February 6, 2012. Funding decisions will be announced in May 2012 for the 2012-2013 academic year. The initiative is made possible by a generous grant from Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters is the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, combining industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, healthcare and science and media markets, powered by the world’s most trusted news organization. With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson Reuters employs more than 55,000 people and operates in over 100 countries. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges (symbol: TRI). For more information: www.thomsonreuters.com.

This summit was held the 5th of December and brought together French and American experts and researchers from different academic disciplines as well as professional chefs, and government officials for a transatlantic perspective on this most elemental, though hardly simple, activity every human being must perform: feeding ourselves. It was inspired by an innovative three-year research collaboration, begun in 2009, between the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS). The program, 21st Century Cuisine, Nutrition and Genetics in France and the U.S., is supported by the French Embassy through the Partner University Fund (PUF), a public-private partnership between the Government of France and individual American donors. This research program between UCLA and EHESS will be presented by Hannah Landecker, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and the UCLA Center for Society and Genetics. This transatlantic collaboration creates an innovative forum in which social scientists, chefs and biomedical professionals can work in tandem to understand how our nutritive strategies connect to body functionality, including longevity, aging, strength, intellectual capacities and the prevention of pathologies. With help from the Partner University Fund, these specialists are able to share knowledge and work together to advance our understanding of these subjects. Our relationship with food is extremely complex. When it is in balance, eating nourishes us and provides balance and strength to life and the basis for good health. When it is out of sync, it can kill. The factors that influence what we consume and under what circumstances are intricately connected. They include culture, psychology, economics, education, metabolism, legislation, genetics, taste, geography and motivation. Unraveling this mystery requires specialists in many disciplines working in concert if the obesity pandemic is to be stemmed. Video : French and American Perspectives on Food and Health Programme of the colloque: French and American Perspectives on Food and Health

Sanofi

Administered by the Partner University Fund (PUF), this initiative includes the selection of one partnership in the field of Public Health and more specifically the access to medicine in emerging countries. This special call for projects follows the regular application forms and guidelines.

PUF promotes innovative collaborations of excellence in research and education between French and American institutions of higher education. The modalities of transatlantic collaboration range from joint research and publications to the development of shared curricula and the establishment of joint and dual degrees. They include various forms of mobility for students, postdoctoral fellows, faculty and researchers.

PUF and Sanofi will fund up to 60% of the cost of the selected project, in the limit of $160,000 per year for the cohort 2012-2015. Project proposals must be submitted by February 6, 2012. Funding decisions will be announced in May 2012 for the 2012-2013 academic year.

The initiative is made possible by a generous grant from Sanofi.

Sanofi is a diversified global healthcare leader, discovers, develops, and distributes therapeutic solutions to improve the lives of everyone. Sanofi works to prevent and treat the diseases that are known of today, as well as those one may face tomorrow. With nearly 100,000 dedicated professionals in more than 100 countries, Sanofi is devoted to advancing healthcare around the world.

For more information: www.sanofi.com

Accuracy of Performance Measures of Energy Storage Systems

PHILADELPHIA (November 29, 2011) — Solving the mystery of prematurely dead cell phone and laptop batteries may prove to be a vital step toward creating a sustainable energy grid according to Drexel researcher Dr. Yury Gogotsi. In a piece published in the November 18 edition of  Science, Gogotsi, who is the head of the A.J. Drexel Nanotechnology Institute, calls for a new, standardized gauge of performance measurement for energy storage devices that are as small as those used in cell phones to as large as those used in the national energy grid.

Gogotsi is one of the featured experts, along with Bill Gates, tapped by Science to address problems that must be solved en route to the widespread use of renewable energy. His piece, co-authored with Dr. Patrice Simon of the Université Paul Sabatier in Toulouse, France, is entitled “True Performance Metrics in Electrochemical Energy Storage.”

“A dramatic expansion of research in the area of electrochemical energy storage has occurred over the past due to an ever increasing variety of handheld electronic devices that we all use,” Gogotsi said. “This has expanded use of electrical energy in transportation, and the need to store renewable energy efficiently at the grid level. This process has been accompanied by the chase for glory with the arrival of new materials and technologies that leads to unrealistic expectations for batteries and supercapacitors and may hurt the entire energy storage field.”

The main type of energy storage device addressed in the article is the supercapacitor. Supercapacators, which are built from relatively inexpensive natural materials such as carbon, aluminum and polymers, are found in devices, ranging from mobile phones and laptop batteries to trams, buses and solar cells. While supercapacitors tend to store less energy compared to standard lithium-ion batteries, they have the ability to charge and discharge energy more quickly than batteries and can be recharged a near infinite number of times, and operate in a wider temperature range with a high efficiency.

Typically, the performance of both, batteries and supercapacitors, is presented using Ragone plots, graphs that show a relation between the energy density and the power density. For example, a Rangone plot for the battery used in an electric car shows both how far it can travel on a single charge –energy density- and how fast the car can travel –power density.  An ideal energy storage device is expected to store plenty of energy and do it quickly.

The issue that Gogotsi and Simon bring to light is the idea that current metrics for grading energy storage devices, including the Ragone plot, may not provide a complete picture of the devices’ capability. According to the researchers, other metrics, such as a device’s cycle lifetime, energy efficiency, self-discharge, temperature range of operation and cost, must also be reported.

“This paper calls upon the community of scientists and engineers who work on supercapacitors to present data on material performance using metrics beyond the traditional Ragone plot,” Simon said. “Although such plots are useful for comparing fully packaged commercial devices, they might predict unrealistic performance for packaged cells from extrapolation of small amounts of materials.”

Gogotsi and Simon have a longtime research collaboration, investigating materials for supercapacitors. Their joint work has received global coverage and various awards and distinctions. Funding for the collaboration between Gogotsi and Simon is sponsored by the Partner University Fund (PUF) which supports innovative and sustainable partnerships between French and US institutions of research and higher education.

News media contact:

Britt Faulstick
News Officer, Office of University Communications
Tel: 215-895-2617 (office)
Cell: 215-796-5161 (cell)
britt.faulstick@drexel.edu

CALL FOR PROJECTS 2013

PUF 2013 Call for proposals is now closed.
Funding decisions will be announced during spring 2013 for the 2013-2014 academic year.

For more information:
Guidelines

Or contact the PUF team:
puf.scac@ambafrance-us.org
Tel: 212 439 1463

PUF - Call for project

The Embassy of France to the United States and the FACE Foundation are accepting application proposals for the Partner University Fund (PUF). PUF promotes innovative collaborations of excellence in research and education between French and American institutions of higher education. PUF supports emerging transatlantic partnerships with the potential to continue beyond the initial 3 year grant.

Partnerships may combine elements such as:

- Joint initiatives in Research and publications
- Faculty and postdoctoral mobility
- Collaboration in teaching
- Shared programs
- Joint and dual degrees at the master’s and PhD levels

PUF currently supports 55 multifaceted partnerships in all fields of study.
This year in order to give more time to applicants to work on their PUF application, the call for projects has been postponed.
Project proposals must be submitted by February 6, 2012.
Funding decisions will be announced in May 2012 for the 2012-2013 academic year.

For more information please contact:

Isabelle Schöninger
Program Coordinator
isabelle.schoninger@ambafrance-us.org
Tel: 212 439 1491
Fax: 212 439 1455

For more information please click on the program below :

From now on you may contact us at the following address :

Partner University Fund
Cultural Services of the French Embassy
972 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10075
Tel : +1 212 439 1491