Portraits of UM

She is a remarkable figure who received an honorary doctorate from the University of Montpellier at the end of December 2023. A leading Serbian teacher who is deeply committed to research in her field of expertise, Milena Dragićević Šešić has helped to develop cultural policy studies around the world, notably through the UNESCO Chair she has held since 2004.

In residence in Montpellier in the fall of 2023 thanks to the UM's MAK'IT (Montpellier Advanced Knowledge Institute on Transitions) program, ecologist Jean-Paul Metzger, professor at the University of São Paulo, has continued his research linking ecology and quality of life with his French counterparts.

With the NEMESIS project, mathematician Daniele Di Pietro has just secured €7.8 million in ERC Synergy funding. His goal is to overcome current technological barriers in the numerical simulation of complex physical problems. This is a crowning achievement for the director of the Montpellier-based Alexandre Grothendieck Institute, who recounts his journey in this discipline, which he did not originally intend to pursue.

A researcher in paleomagnetism at the Montpellier Geosciences Laboratory, Paul Antonio has been awarded a European Research Council (ERC) grant for his proposal for a new experimental method to refine the dating of the Earth's inner core.

Oriol Amat is a professor of economics at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, where he also served as rector. He is considered an expert in financial accounting, management control, and corporate fraud. On September 20, the University of Montpellier had the pleasure of awarding him an honorary doctorate.

Erika Burioli is working on cancer cells that can spread into the environment and infect foreign organisms. The researcher at the Host-Pathogen-Environment Interactions (IHPE) laboratory was awarded a European Research Council (ERC) grant in September 2023 to continue her work on bivalves.