Fellowships

Canada

Host lab: Laboratory for Research on Learning and Development – LEAD

James Schmidt has expertise in research on learning, attention, cognitive control, and neural networks. His primary experimental research line focuses on human contingency learning. That is, he studies how we learn (often unconsciously) the regularities in our environment and use this knowledge to better interact with our world. He also does a lot of research on attention and cognitive control, albeit primarily as a critic of mainstream cognitive control theories. This includes work on conflict monitoring and attentional control, in addition to recent work on task switching. He has considerable expertise in neural network modelling. In particular, he programmed a neural network model of episodic memory that he has been applying widely to a broad range of research fields. He has also published work on temporal learning, formal reasoning, binding, and the Stroop effect.

Keywords: cognitive psychology, neural networks, contingency learning, binding, attention, cognitive control, timing, task switching, computational modelling, episodic memory.

General conclusion:
The project made several theoretical and applied advances. The project contributed to our knowledge of basic processes in human contingency learning and the optimal conditions for learning new information. This work was further applied to early music learning, with strongly encouraging results. The work also contributed to our understanding of cognitive control, specifically, how we deal with changing task environments and how we deal with conflicting information. Several reports also explored the nature and organization of bilingual memory. Finally, a practical application for data concatenation was published for free and open use.

United Kingdom

Host Lab: Laboratoire interdisciplinaire Carnot de Bourgogne – ICB

Simon KIMBER is a materials chemist, with significant expertise in electronic and magnetic properties. He has worked in central facilities for synchrotron and neutron scattering, and made significant R&D advances in scattering techniques. He has applied these to both solid state and solution phase systems, and has recently developed an interest in the interfaces between solvated species and solvent.

Keywords: X-ray and neutron scattering, in-situ measurements, materials chemistry, nanoparticle interfaces, solvent restructuring.

Japon

Lab Host: Institut Mathématique de Bourgogne – IMB

Taro KIMURA’s scientific expertise is based on theoretical physics, in particular, mathematical aspects of quantum field theory. He has been working on supersymmetric gauge theory and superstring theory with emphasis on its connection to quantum algebraic structure, e.g., W-algebras, quantum affine algebras, arising through deformation quantization of the associated moduli space. He also has been exploring the geometric correspondence between the gauge theory moduli space and the classical/quantum integrable system. The main tools used in his studies are based on the geometric and algebraic approach to matrix model, quantum inverse scattering method in quantum integrable systems and the path integral localization for supersymmetric gauge theory.

Keywords: Quantum Field Theory, Superstring Theory, Supersymmetric Gauge Theory, Conformal Field Theory, W-algebra, Quantization of Moduli Space, Integrable System, Random Matrix Theory

> Read Taro KIMURA’s portrait

General conclusion:
During the project “CQAG”, I have worked mainly on Quantum Field Theory, which is one of the most universal methodologies in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics. I have explored its mathematical aspects and various applications. One of the main results of the project is about the infinite dimensional algebraic structure associated with the moduli space of gauge theory. For example, I have elucidated that the equivariant integral over the quiver variety is concisely described using the vertex operators obtained through quantization of the moduli space. I have also explored the geometric correspondence between gauge theory and quantum integrable system (Bethe/Gauge correspondence) for orthogonal/symplectic gauge theory and for supergroup gauge theory.

​France

Lab Host: Lipides, Nutrition, Cancer – LNC

Olivier BURGY has acquired significant expertise in pulmonary fibrosis. He has studied the mechanisms leading to the development and progression of pulmonary fibrosis and the heat shock proteins (HSP) involvement in these processes, as well as their role as potential therapeutic targets. His work has shown that inhibition of HSPB5 (HSP that promotes cell migration and invasion by modulating signal transduction pathways in cancer pathologies) inhibits fibrosis induced by the anti-cancer agent bleomycin. Olivier BURGY has also developed a research axis on the role of extracellular vesicles (EVs) in experimental and human pulmonary fibrosis. Through his scientific career, he has acquired a solid knowledge of cellular and molecular biology, particularly in development signalling (TGF, WNT) and in wound healing/tissue fibrosis processes.

Keywords: Extracellular vesicles, heat shock proteins, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, fibrosis, bleomycin, biomarkers, theranostic, developmental signaling pathways, translational science.

​Royaume-Uni

Lab Host: Agroécologie

With her background in ecology and political science, Juliette YOUNG has developed a unique interdisciplinary expertise in political ecology (consideration of human dimensions in the conservation of Nature). Her research, carried out in different settings (agriculture, forestry, fishing, hunting) and contexts (Europe, Asia, Africa), covers the policy cycle from its inception to its implementation. It integrates science-policy dialogue, knowledge co-production, associated conservation conflicts and their resolution, and evaluation of social and biodiversity outcomes. Juliette YOUNG is involved in new interdisciplinary research in which she adapts her portfolio of social science skills and methodologies to better understand socio-ecological systems, advancing knowledge to ensure a more sustainable future.

Keywords: Political ecology, conflict management, farming, land-use systems, forestry, hunting, fisheries, Europe, Asia, Africa, mixed-methods approaches, public participation, sustainability, inter-disciplinarity

General conclusion:

The TRANSFORM project started with the premise that curent failures to move towards more sustainable farming are due to conflicts between actors with different values and goals related to agriculture. Our results based on a transdisciplinary approach integrating key actors from the start of our research indicate that there are different visions of what an ideal agriculture might look like. Being forced to shift to another vision can cause conflicts as it means a complete transformation of ones own values and norms. A number of barriers and levers to change were identified through the project most of which were at the. relational institutional and cultural level – meaning we need to focus less on the need to change individual farmers but focus more on a holistic approach involving many other relevant stakeholders and addressing broader issues of power and democracy.
The Transformation Labs allowed stakehoIders to buiId on conflicts as a positive motor for change, jointly identifying solutions that couId lead to transformation at all levels.

France / Royaume-Uni

Lab Host: Laboratoire de Mathématiques de Besançon – LMB

Her research work contributes to the numerical analysis and the development of efficient numerical methods having a guaranteed precision for problems (in particular partial differential equations) arising from electronic structure calculation, quantum chemistry and materials science. Geneviève DUSSON has an expertise in numerical analysis, in particular in a posteriori error analysis and adaptive meshes for finite element methods. She performed error estimations for linear and nonlinear eigenvalue problems with different discretization methods (spectral, conforming and nonconforming finite elements). She also works on data-driven modeling, and machine learning techniques for interatomic potentials in materials science.

Keywords: Numerical analysis, PDEs, a posteriori error analysis, linear and nonlinear eigenvalue problems, Schrödinger equation, perturbation method, data-driven modeling, high-dimensional approximation

France

Lab Host: Centre des Sciences du Goût et de l’Alimentation – CSGA

Fabrice DAMON area of expertise is the cognitive development of human and nonhuman primates with a special focus on social cognition through the perspective of face processing. Familiar with the theoretical and technical aspects of facial processing, he is also proficient in designing infant research paradigms (e.g. habituation, visual paired comparison, etc.) using behavioral and imaging measures (e.g. eye-tracking, EEG, etc.). Fabrice DAMON is particularly interested in gaze behavior, which can inform on multisensory integration, for instance in the audiovisual (e.g. detection of synchronous audiovisual flow) or in the visuo-olfactory domain (e.g. face scanning in context of odor, odor/facial emotion matching). His work has led to the identification of a common mechanism of face perception in human and macaque infants, the finding of a strong visual for adult faces in infants during the first 6 months of life and the finding of a species-specific effect of face attractiveness in adult humans and macaques, highlighting the interaction of mate-choice adaptation mechanisms (species-specific) and general sensory biases (shared between primates).

Keywords: Infant cognitive development; Social cognition; Face processing; Multisensory integration (vision-olfaction); Categorization; Eye-tracking; Electroencephalography; Comparative studies.

​France

Lab Host: Agroécologie

Samuel JACQUIOD has gathered a solid expertise as a general soil ecologist, including other trophic levels such as fungi, nematodes, protists, earthworms, and plants. Willing to develop practical applications of his research in microbial ecology, he has notably worked on the valorization of waste/recalcitrant bioressources, the discovery of novel functional genes of industrial interest, the improvement of plant growth, and environmental pollution diagnosis using molecular bioindicators. Samuel JACQUIOD also trained in bioinformatics and biostatistics, fields in which he is now recognized as an expert. For several years now, he has been interested in experimental evolution in order to better understand the links between microbes and plants and their consequences on plant growth, as well as the role of microbes in above- and belowground interactions, especially between plants and earthworms.

Keywords: Microbiology, ecology, agroecology, plant physiology, molecular biology, evolution, (meta)genomic, (meta)transcriptomic, bioinformatic, biostatistic, biotechnology, environmental sciences.

General conclusion:
The EMERGE project has given me the means to pursue and establish my research activities on plant-microbial interactions in Bourgogne Franche-Comté, which the successful getting of my permanent position as an associate professor at the University of Bourgogne in 2022. Altogether, I have participated in the publication of 19 scientific peer-reviewed articles during the period funded by the project. This includes 10 publications on the topic on plant-microbial interactions. Four additional publications related to the project are being prepared. The main scientific achievement of the project was the establishment of a real “know-how” in terms of manipulating the rhizosphere microbiota as a whole unit, which can be directly an operational target of artificial selection to improve plant growth. This directly enable new perspective in crop breeding, as it is know becoming conceivable to include the microbiota in varietal selection.