Research news - September / October 2024

September 2024 - Konstantinos Chalikakis

Konstantinos Chalikakis is a lecturer and researcher at Avignon University, within the UMR EMMAH. He is the holder of the GeEAUde partnership chair: "Dynamics of groundwater resources and interactions with associated ecosystems", inaugurated in May 2024.

Konstantinos' scientific career revolves around two major societal and environmental issues: access to and sustainability of groundwater resources. He explores environmental challenges through hydrogeology and hydrogeophysics.

Passionate about the preservation of groundwater, he leads international projects aimed at improving the sustainable management of this precious resource. With his commitment to passing on knowledge, he encourages students to follow their scientific curiosity.

>> Go here

October 2024 - Marine Soulié

Marine Soulié is a research engineer in organic chemistry in the S2CB team at UPRI (Unité Propre de Recherche et d'Innovation). She recently defended her thesis on the subject of "Design, synthesis and characterisation of chemical tools for the study of membrane proteins".

A better understanding of these particular proteins is the key to finding new therapeutic solutions. As an organic chemist, Marine Soulié is working to extend and improve the toolbox available to 'capture' them and observe them in detail.

>> To find out more, click here

Implanteus Lectures resume Tuesday 16 October 2024 from 2.30 pm to 4.30 pm, by videoconference, with :
Weijie Lanthe College of Food Science and TechnologyNanjing Agricultural University (China).

The theme of the conference will be Infrared spectroscopy guides smart food processing: opportunities, challenges and future perspectives" .

>> More information to come on the Implanteus website

EUR Implanteus had the pleasure of taking part in the "Destino Francia 2024 organised by Campus France in Colombia. The event was held on 28 and 29 September 2024 at the Lycée Français Louis Pasteur in Bogotá.

This was an opportunity to talk to potential students about our Masters in Agriculture, Food Science, Environment and Nutrition, and to present the academic and professional opportunities available at Avignon University.

>> More information

The start of the 2024 academic year in the International Masters in Agrosciences (IMAS)

The start of the academic year at Avignon University was marked by the arrival of the new students in the International Master's in Agrosciences (IMAS) programme, as well as a number of second-year students. With students of more than six nationalities, this year's intake brings a variety of perspectives and a wealth of experience, which will help to energise the international community and encourage collaboration in the field of agrosciences.

We wish all our students a year full of success, learning, discovery and innovation.

The internationally recognised Open Access Days (JOA) will be held at Avignon University on 12 and 13 November on the Hannah Arendt and Jean-Henri Fabre campuses. The SCD Avignon's research support service (SAR) will be offering an Open Access awareness session and a talk by Gabriel Gallezot, MCF at URFIST Méditerranée, on research data.

Doctoral students, lecturers and staff are invited to take part and contribute to collective and accessible knowledge.

Details of the programme will be announced at a later date.
Contact: bu-recherche@univ-avignon.fr

>> More info

• 10/10/2024 - Christian Cravatto: "2-methyloxolane as a green solvent for the eco-extraction of primary and secondary metabolites from plants". (UMR SQPOV)
• 26/09/2024 - Paolo Zappala "Methods for games in extensive form with application to the mobile network market" (UPR LIA)
• 13/09/2024 - Patrick EVENO: "The concept of a second home in a tourist area put to the test by the collaborative economy". (UMR ESPACE-DEV)
• 9/09/2024 - Gaëlle Laperrière: "Understanding speech in a multilingual context" (UPR LIA)

The 3A Platform

The platform, located on the Jean Henri Fabre campus of Avignon University, brings together a range of shared facilities designed to support the research and teaching activities of Avignon University and INRAE, as well as the projects of other universities and private players in the fields of agronomy and agri-food. It is attached to the Avignon University's research and innovation support department (DARI).

The platform's cutting-edge tools enable targeted and non-targeted analyses for the identification and quantification of metabolites present in any type of sample. The platform provides a full range of à la carte services, including sample preparation, chromatographic separation, structural analysis, absolute or relative quantification and even computer processing of the data before returning the results.

Tailor-made training courses are also available for students and academic or private-sector staff.

If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us:
Vanessa Kuentz
Analytical Chemistry Engineer - 3A Platform Operational Manager
vanessa.kuentz@univ-avignon.fr

>> News from the platform will be updated here shortly.

Bayan Abu Nahla, a Palestinian visual artist from Gaza, is being hosted for a year by the Centre Norbert Elias as part of the PAUSE programme. This national programme offers refuge to researchers and artists whose freedom is restricted in their own countries. Bayan, who specialises in watercolour and ink on paper, creates portraits that explore the intimate, often inspired by her experience in Palestine. Her work was featured in the "What Palestine brings to the world" exhibition at the Institut du Monde Arabe.

To carry out her work, she will be employed by Avignon University and will benefit from the artistic and scientific environment of the École des Beaux-Arts and the Centre Norbert Elias, where artistic writing in the social sciences takes on a heuristic and experimental dimension.

>> To find out more, read the article published on the Centre Norbert Elias website.

Rosa Figueiredo from the Avignon Computer Science Laboratory (LIA) and Jessica Sainty of the Laboratory of Legal, Political, Economic and Management Sciences (-JPEG) have obtained ANR funding for their project "EValuation of gender policies in the academy through the Analysis of scientific collaboration networks (EVA)as part of the 2024 generic call for projects. Rosa Figueiredo, project coordinator at the LIA, and Jessica Sainty, scientific manager for the -JPEG, in association with the ERIC laboratory at the Université Lumière Lyon 2, will run the project for 4 years, with funding of €445,895.42. The project involves an analysis of gender inequalities in the French academic world and will produce a map of existing and missing corrective and promotional measures in the field of gender, as well as recommendations for good practice.

>> Read the full summary of the project on our page "Research Projects.

New: A call for projects bulletin

At the start of the 2024 school year, the DARI's Projects, Partnerships and International Development Department offers a "calls for projects bulletin". Sent out once a month by e-mail, it keeps researchers, lecturers and teacher-researchers at Avignon University up to date with current and forthcoming calls for proposals, events and important deadlines not to be missed.

>> Contact: aap-recherche@univ-avignon.fr

Demonstrations will give you the opportunity to discover the world of eco-extraction on the CVDV-Unesco Chair stand run by Anne-Sylvie Tixier and Emmanuel Petitcolas. Extract, share, progress... Come and take up the scientific challenges of eco-extraction!

To find out more about the unsuspected underground routes taken by our vital resource, water, go to the GeEAUde chair stand. Konstantinos Chalikakisthe Vaucluse ambassador for the Fête de la Science 2024, and the Chair's partners (INRAE, IFPEN, Veolia and the Maison Régionale de l'Eau) will be offering activities on the dynamics of groundwater resources and their interactions with associated ecosystems. You'll learn all about the visible and invisible pathways of water!

Guilhem Boulay(UMR ESPACE), co-coordinator of the GIF - Geodata Immobilier Foncier Chair, defended his Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches (HDR) on 12 September last. "Facing the market. Property prices in France: from geographical measurement to territorial room for manoeuvre".

The HDR allows its holder to supervise doctoral students in his or her own name. This is an important step for the GIF Chair, which aims to develop its research activities.

Restaurant Françoise, 6 rue du Gal Leclerc Avignon
8.30pm - 10.30pm, Free admission

With Sophie GambardellaLawyer, CNRS Research Fellow, UMR DICE 7318, Aix-Marseille University
and Christian TamburiniOceanographer, CNRS Research Director, MIO UMR 7294, Aix-Marseille University

The deep seabed is home to many rare resources, particularly minerals, which are coveted by governments. However, these resources cannot be exploited without damaging the oceans, which are now the planet's largest carbon sink.

So should governments start exploiting these resources?

>> To find out more, click here

Clémentine Mutilloda third-year doctoral student in the EECAR of the Mediterranean Institute of Biodiversity and Ecology (IMBE) at the IUT in Avignon, continues to distinguish herself in the field of ecological research. She recently published an article on The ConversationThis is the second article to be published on the platform, showing how the reintroduction of Przewalski's horses to the Lozère region is helping to preserve the species and restore its ecology. This is his second text on the platform, following a first published in March 2024.

Clémentine Mutillod won first prize for the best oral presentation at the 14th European Conference on Ecological Restorationwhich took place from 26 to 30 August 2024 in Tartu, Estonia. His presentation, entitled "What are the effects of the introduction of 'as wild' horses on dung beetle assemblage and its associated ecological functions? was praised for its clarity and originality among the 64 oral presentations by student candidates. The conference, which was attended by around 700 participants, is a major event for specialists in ecological restoration in Europe, which underlines the scale of this achievement.

Congratulations to Clémentine Mutillod on her achievements and this award.

>> Read the latest news on the Avignon University website