FRANCE SCIENCE SUMMIT 2025
October 20th, 2025 – Embassy of France in Washington, DC
Program:
8:30 am Welcome Coffee
9:00 am Opening session
- Agnès 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)
- Brent McBride, Ph.D, and Roberto Fernandez-Bordan, Ph.D, founders of Grasp Earth, a spin-off of University of Maryland and Université de Lille
- Dr. Eric D. Wachsman, Director, Maryland Energy Innovation Institute: The ION Storage Systems – Saint Gobain partnership
- Laetitia Jubin, PhD, Business and technology development director, Ceramic Materials, Saint-Gobain, SGR North America
Moderation: Prof. Didier Marty-Dessus, Counselor for Science and Technology, Embassy of France in the US
9:45 am French and European Research policy overview and tools for cooperation
- Prof. Didier Marty-Dessus, Counselor for Science and Technology, Embassy of France in the US
- Florent Bernard, Ph.D, Science Counselor at the European Union Delegation in Washington, DC, USA at European External Action Service
10:15 am The presence of French national research centers in the USA
- Jan Matas, Ph.D, Director CNRS Office in Washington, D.C
- Fabien Agenes, Ph.D, Inserm Representative in North America
- Mathieu Weiss, CNES Representative for North America
- Clara Hollick, North America Partnership Relations Officer, INRAE
- Sunil Felix, Ph.D, Nuclear Counselor at the French Embassy in Washington, DC
Moderation: Iris de Rode, Gibson Fellow in Democracy, UVA’s Karsh Institute of Democracy
11:00 am Break
11:30 am Experiences of transatlantic cooperation and mobility
- Keynote speeches:
Venkatramani Balaji, Ph.D, Climate Lead at Schmidt Science, Make Our Planet Great Again Fellow
Iban Seiliez, Ph.D, Research Director, INRAE, Pau University, France
- Roundtable:
Ivan Suarez, Ph.D, Châteaubriand and Transatlantic Research Partnership Laureate, Inserm Research Associate
Alison Shapiro, Ph.D Candidate in Chemical Engineering at the University of Delaware, and French American Doctoral Exchange (FADEx) program alumni
Guillaume Stahl, Ph.D, DG CNRS alumni
Fabien Agenes, Ph.D, Inserm Representative in North America
Moderation: Sarah Minery, Deputy Inserm Representative in North America
12:30 pm Buffet Lunch
Poster session highlighting the 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
Elie Bursztein, Ph.D, Research Scientist at Google & DeepMind
Armand Sauzay, Software Engineer, Machine Learning at Meta
Moderation: Philippe Ribière, Ph.D, Attaché for Science and Technology, Embassy of France in the United States
- 2:45 pm Data Science and Modeling for Agriculture and Climate
Estelle Couradeau, Ph.D, Assistant Professor at Penn State University
Pierre Gentine, Ph.D, Professor at Columbia University
Louis A. Derry, Ph.D, Director of Graduate Studies – Geological Sciences, Cornell University, Make Our Planet Great Again Fellow
Moderation: Clara Hollick, North America Partnership Relations Officer, INRAE
3:45 pm Break
- 4:00 pm Advances in Health Research
Jean-Léon Thomas, Ph.D, Associate Professor position at the Neurology Department of the Yale School of Medicine
Nady Golestaneh, Ph.D, Director of Research, Department of Ophthalmology, Georgetown University School of Medicine
Moderation: Valérie Livrelli, Pharm.D, Ph.D, Attaché for Science and Technology, Consulate General of France in Chicago
- 4:45 pm Looking up: Advances in Astrophysics
Sylvain Guiriec, Ph.D, Professor of Physics at George Washington University, Astrophysicist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Thomas Fauchez, Ph.D, Research scientist employed by American University at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Moderation: Joaquim Nassar, Ph.D, Attaché for Science and Technology, Embassy of France in the United States
5:30 pm Concluding remarks by Prof. Didier Marty-Dessus, Counselor for Science and Technology, Embassy of France in the US
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.
