French Academy of Sciences at Technion
Technion was honored to host a senior delegation from the French Academy of Sciences on Wednesday, November 28th, 2018. The delegation visited the Technion as part of a series of jointly sponsored academic events, marking the 70th anniversary of the State of Israel.
The French Academy of Sciences and Technion representatives
On the French side, the respected delegation included, French Academy members: Prof. Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Harvey Prize winner (1996) and Nobel Laureate (1997) and his wife, Mrs. Jacqueline Veyrat Tannoudji; Prof. Odile Eisenstein, Technion Honorary Doctor and Emeritus Director of Research at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS); Prof. Pascale Cossart of the Pasteur Institute and Secretaire Perpetuelle of the French Academy of Sciences; Prof. Thibault Damour, Theoretical Physicist, CNRS Gold Medalist, (2017); Mr. Philippe Boncour, Advisor to the second Secretaire perpetuelle Prof. Catherine Brechignac; Mr. Sebastien Linden, Scientific and Academic Attaché to the French Embassy in Israel, and Mr. Patrice Servantir of the French Consulate in Haifa.
The delegation was received by Prof. Adam Shwartz, Senior Executive Vice President; Prof. Ilan Marek of the Schulich Faculty of Chemistry and member of the French Academy of Sciences, Prof. Eric Akkermans, Faculty of Physics; Prof. Emeritus Uri Shamir, Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Prof. Shie Shamir of the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering.
During the open scientific roundtable discussions, Prof. Odile Eisenstein focused on defining specific fields of collaboration between Technion and other academic institutions in France. Prof. Eric Akkermans spoke of the high demand for collaboration, and that post-doctoral student would be a good avenue to strengthen this collaboration while Prof. Ilan Marek summarized all past efforts to strengthen the scientific relationships between Israel and France.
“There is a growing interest in France with regards to academic collaboration with Israel,” Mr. Linden said. Specifically, he mentioned the Maimonides-Israel research program, which aims to support the development of scientific and technological cooperation between French and Israeli researchers and to strengthen the scientific partnership between research groups from both countries by establishing bilateral research networks.