UM Profiles

Currently in Montpellier for ten months as part of the Mak’It program, anthropologist Tania Li of the University of Toronto is bringing together her research on social and environmental justice in Indonesia with that of her French colleagues at the SENS laboratory in West Africa, Mexico, and Myanmar.

Cécile Echalier’s research goal is to develop new biomaterials with highly anticipated applications in healthcare and regenerative medicine. The chemist from the Max Mousseron Institute of Biomolecules has just been appointed associate professor at the University of Montpellier, the very same institution where she once sat in the lecture halls as a student.

It was a remarkable individual who received an honorary doctorate from the University of Montpellier in late December 2023. A leading Serbian scholar deeply committed to advancing research in her field of expertise, Milena Dragićević Šešić has helped develop cultural policy studies worldwide, notably through the UNESCO Chair she has held since 2004.

During his fall 2023 residency in Montpellier through the University of Montpellier’s MAK’IT (Montpellier Advanced Knowledge Institute on Transitions) program, ecologist Jean-Paul Metzger, a professor at the University of São Paulo, continued his research—which bridges ecology and quality of life—in collaboration with his French colleagues.

With the NEMESIS project, mathematician Daniele Di Pietro has just secured €7.8 million in ERC Synergy funding. His goal: to overcome current technological barriers in the numerical simulation of complex physical problems. This is a major achievement for Alexandre Grothendieck, director of the Montpellier institute, who recounts his journey in this field—one he never intended to pursue.

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