FRANCE SCIENCE SUMMIT 2025
October 20th, 2025 – Embassy of France in Washington, DC
Program:
8:30 am Welcome Coffee
9:00 am Opening session
- Agnes Von Der Mühll, Minister Counselor, Embassy of France in the US
- Donato Giorgi, Head of International and European Affairs, French Ministry of Higher Education and Research
- François Decoster, Vice-President for Culture, Heritage, Regional Languages and International Relations (Hauts-de-France Region)
- Grasp Earth – Innovation & Entrepreneurship FR-US (Hauts de France-Maryland regional partnership) TBC
- Maryland state government representative TBC
- Didier Marty-Dessus, Counselor for Science and Technology, Embassy of France in the US
9:30 am Research policy overview and tools for cooperation
- French Research Policy
Didier Marty-Dessus, Counselor for Science and Technology, Embassy of France in the US
- European programs for transatlantic cooperation and mobility
Florent Bernard, Science Counsellor at the European Union Delegation in Washington DC, USA at European External Action Service
10:00 am Perspectives on the evolution of transatlantic scientific relations
Moderator: Iris de Rode, Gibson Fellow in Democracy, UVA’s Karsh Institute of Democracy
- Joaquim Nassar, Attaché for Science and Technology, Embassy of France in the United States
- Jan Matas, Director CNRS Office in Washington, D.C
- Fabien Agenes, Inserm Representative in North America
- Mathieu Weiss, CNES Representative for North America
- Clara Hollick, North America Partnership Relations Officer INRAE
- Sunil Felix, Nuclear Counselor at the French Embassy in Washington DC
10:45 am Break
11:00 am Sharing experiences of transatlantic cooperation in research & innovation
- Venkatramani Balaji, Climate Lead at Schmidt Sciences (10min)
- Eric D. Wachsman, Director, Maryland Energy Innovation Institute (10min)
- Ivan Suarez, alumni Châteaubriand, Senior CRCN project at Inserm
- Alison Shapiro, PhD Candidate in Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware and French American Doctoral Exchange (FADEx) program alumni
11:30 am Connecting scientists: transatlantic alumni network
Moderator: Sarah Minery, Deputy Inserm Representative in North America
- Lisa Bernstein, Academic Exchange Specialist, U.S. Department of State, Office of Academic Exchanges
- Guillaume Stahl, DG CNRS alumni
- Naomi Taylor, Inserm Abroad (SAB)
- Ivan Suarez, alumni Châteaubriand, Senior CRCN project at Inserm
12:20 pm Buffet Lunch
Poster session highlighting contribution of PhD students and post-docs to transatlantic science
2:00 pm French-American science journeys and achievements
- 2:00 pm Artificial Intelligence: New Frontiers in transatlantic research and innovation
Moderator: Philippe Ribière, Attaché for Science and Technology, Embassy of France in the United States
Elie Bursztein, Research Scientist at Google & DeepMind
Armand Sauzay, Software Engineer, Machine Learning at Meta
- 2:45 pm Data Science and Modeling for Agriculture and Climate
Moderator: Clara Hollick, North America Partnership Relations Officer, INRAE
Pierre Gentine, Professor at Columbia University
Estelle Couradeau, Assistant Professor at Penn State University
Louis A. Derry, Director of Graduate Studies – Geological Sciences, Cornell University
Iban Seiliez, Research Director, INRAE, Pau University, France
3:45 pm Break
- 4:00 pm Advances in Health Research
Moderator: Valérie Livrelli, Attaché for Science and Technology, Consulate General of France in Chicago
Jean Léon Thomas, Associate Professor position at the Neurology Department of the Yale School of Medicine
Elise Marsan, Principal Investigator at the National Institutes of Health
- 4:45 pm Looking up: Advances in Astrophysics
Moderator: Joaquim Nassar, Attaché for Science and Technology, Embassy of France in the United States
Sylvain Guiriec, Professor of Physics at the George Washington University, Astrophysicist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Thomas Fauchez, Research scientist employed by American University at NASA GSFC
5:30 pm Concluding remarks
Contact: [email protected]
For your information, you will not be able to park inside the Embassy. You will have to park in the adjacent streets.
