Every year, hundreds of students in science, letters and arts enter ENS or advance to the next season in their 3- or 4-year curriculum. In September, during three weeks, the ENS presidence teams up with all departments and centers to offer them a thorough orientation throughout the vast palette of training opportunities offered by the school and its network of institutional partners, Université Paris Sciences & Lettres (PSL). This year, UMI iGLOBES director Regis Ferriere is scheduled to speak in six sessions: “I explain what the UMI is, and showcase the range of extraordinary opportunities that iGLOBES offers to ENS/PSL students for international interdisciplinary studies.” 

In a cross-disciplinary session with more than fifty first-year students interested in environmental studies, Ferriere emphasized the strength of UA in environmental research (recently ranked no. 1 in the US and no. 2 worldwide in a study published by the journal Science of the Total Environment) and how ideally positioned the UMI is to connect ENS/PSL students to UA programs related to the environment. When polled about coming to study at iGLOBES, a dozen students responded with enthusiast expression of interest! (in picture).

In a specific session with new Biology Master 1 students, Ferriere encouraged students in the Ecology-Evolution track to consider a Spring semester research internship at the UMI under the supervision of UA faculty from the prestigious Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department. Thanks to a specific agreement between ENS and UA, ENS biology students may also be hosted by the UMI for a full year of studies at the UA, auditing classes (more than 200 graduate-level classes, in Fall and Spring semesters, are listed by UA Institute of the Environment) and doing research, which ENS can validate towards the school diploma.

In a forthcoming session, Ferriere will give a broad-audience talk about the new research agenda on life and living in space that iGLOBES pursues with PSL Initiative de Recherche Interdisciplinaire Stratégique OCAV (Origines et Conditions d’Apparition de la Vie). Stay tune!