Portraits of theUM

In a few days, environmental economist Zhi Li will return to Xiamen University in China. After a six-month stay in Montpellier as part of the MAK’IT Institute’s “Visiting Scholar” program, he plans to continue the various collaborations he has initiated with laboratories in the Hérault department.

Pauline Roques has had a career unlike any other, juggling her marketing dissertation at the University of Montpellier with an international career as a champion in artistic roller skating. She looks back on those busy years, which culminated in a doctorate and several roller skating titles.

Thanks to groundbreaking findings on semiconductor nanostructures—and in particular on the physical properties of boron nitride—physicist Guillaume Cassabois of the Charles Coulomb Laboratory at theUM has just been awarded the 2025 Jean Ricard Grand Prize by the French Physical Society. While the award recognizes an individual achievement, the researcher emphasizes the importance of teamwork throughout his research.

A political scientist at theUM, Laura Michel has been coordinating a research group focused entirely on the social sciences and humanities and dedicated to public transition policies since 2024. This role led to her appointment as director of the Mak’it program at the Montpellier Institute for Advanced Studies, which specializes in transition.

Irène Georgescu, a university professor at Montpellier Management, conducts research on the resilience of healthcare professionals. This work earned her a 5.6 million euro European Research Innovation Action grant in 2025.

Madhur Anand, an ecologist and professor at the University of Guelph in Canada, bridges the gap between science and the arts, even in her own work. A modeler and author, she is taking advantage of her visit to Montpellier in the first semester of 2025 to combine interdisciplinary seminars with book signings at the Comédie du livre.