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Laura Gagliardi is a renowned international researcher at the University of Chicago, recognized for her pioneering contributions to theoretical and computational chemistry, particularly in the study of reticular materials such as metal–organic frameworks (MOFs). The Solvay/Syensqo Chair in Chemistry honors chemists who have made exceptional advances in their fields. As part of this distinction, Professor Gagliardi delivered a series of lectures at several Belgian universities, including a seminar at the University of Namur, Department of Chemistry.

At a time when misinformation, post-truths and conspiracies are undermining confidence in science, UNamur welcomes SPiN (Science & Philosophy in Namur), a new interdisciplinary research center that questions the place of science in society. Founded last September by Olivier Sartenaer, Professor of Philosophy of Science at UNamur, SPiN brings together philosophers and scientists around a common vision: to develop a critical and accessible reflection on science in all its diversity..

Why take English classes when you want to become a veterinarian? How can you teach Spanish to future management engineers? Far from vocabulary lists or lab classes with headphones, these languages are taught as genuine cross-disciplinary skills that are essential for the jobs of tomorrow. 

The University of Namur is soon to offer two inaugural lessons for two Francqui Chairs, one in the Faculty of Science and the other in the Faculty of Law. Open to all, the inaugural lectures will be followed by a local drink. These events are free, upon registration.

JuryProf. Eli THORÉ (UNamur), PresidentProf. Patrick KESTEMONT (UNamur), SecretaryProf. Ranjàna RANDRIANARIVO (Université d'Antananarivo)Dr. Valérie CORNET (UNamur)Dr. Omayma MISSAWI (UNamur)Prof. Catherine MOUNEYRAC (Université Catholique de l'Ouest)Prof. Gauthier EPPE (ULiège)SummaryThe widespread production and use of plastics have led to their continuous release into the environment. Microplastics (MPs) are now ubiquitous in aquatic ecosystems, where their bioavailability to organisms and potential entry into the food web raise serious environmental and public health concerns. Substantial progress has been made in understanding MP toxicity, and their hazardous potential is now widely acknowledged. However, MP toxicity studies remain complex, as multiple particle characteristics, such as size, shape, polymer type, and sorbed contaminants might influence both bioavailabilityTo bridge this gap, the present thesis adopted a dual, complementary approach: (i) characterizing the environmental occurrence and bioavailability of MPs, and (ii) assessing the ecological relevance of using environmentally derived MPs in in vivo toxicity experiments.Overall, this thesis provides insights into the reproductive and transgenerational effects of environmentally relevant MPs while underscoring the importance of considering particle-pollutant interactions. By combining in situ field data with in vivo laboratory experiments, it demonstrates that the use of environmentally derived MPs represents a more realistic and ecologically meaningful approach to hazard characterization. Further studies should be carried out in this same perspective to generate robust, exploitable data and contribute to establishing a comprehensive MP risk characterization.

South America is a subcontinent rich in natural and cultural resources. Between biodiversity preservation and development cooperation, UNamur maintains valuable partnerships to address the challenges of biodiversity loss and understand current socio-economic transformations. Immersion in Ecuador and Peru. 

Conceptual field theory and didactic situation theory Two complementary theories for thinking about and organizing mathematical learningIn the first part of this talk, I'll propose an introductory situation in literal arithmetic (Barallobres & Giroux, 2008) that will enable me to introduce and illustrate the main concepts and methodological tools of the theory of didactic situations developed by Guy Brousseau (Brousseau, 1997; Bessot, 2024). In the second part, I will give a brief presentation of Gérard Vergnaud's theory of conceptual fields (Vergnaud, 1990; Durand-Guerrier and Saby, 2023), then show how this theory helps to shed further light on the introductory situation.The contributions of the anthropological theory of didactics The Anthropological Theory of Didactics (TAD, Chevallard, 2001) aims to explain why and how a given knowledge lives in a certain institution, and/or is transformed as it passes from one institution to another. This perspective and some of its evolutions will be presented and illustrated in this talk.Students' activities and teachers' practices in the mathematics classroom: analysis methodology with Activity TheoryIn this talk, we will present the founding assumptions of the Activity Theory framework adapted to the Didactics of Mathematics (TADM, Vandebrouck, 2008), showing how this theory gives importance to fine-grained analyses of mathematical knowledge to appreciate classroom developments. We will then exemplify some of these aspects on the teaching of limits at university (Bridoux and Grenier-Boley, 2024).BibliographyBarallobres, G., & Giroux, J. (2008). Environmental deficiencies and regulations in validation situations. N. In Berdnaz, & C. Mary (Eds). L'enseignement des mathématiques face aux défis de l'école et des communautés. Actes du colloque EMF 2006 (CD-ROM). Éditions du CRP https://emf.unige.ch/application/files/1414/5390/4857/EMF2006_GT8_Barallobres.pdfBessot, A. (2003). An introduction to the theory of didactic situations. Cahiers du laboratoire Leibniz, 91. hal-00078794Bridoux, S., & Grenier-Boley, N. (2024). What teaching practices should be used to introduce the limits of functions in the first year of university? A case study. In A. González-Martín, G. Gueudet, I. Florensa & N. Lombard (Eds.), Proceedings of the Fifth Conference of the International Network for Didactic Research in University Mathematics (INDRUM 2024, 10-14 June 2024) (pp. 791-800). Escola Universitària de Sarrià. Univ. Autònoma de Barcelona and INDRUM.Brousseau, G. (1997). Théorie des situations didactiques. Lecture given at the award to Guy Brousseau of the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Montreal. http://www.cfem.asso.fr/actualites/archives/Brousseau.pdfChevallard, Y. (2001). Organizing study: 1. Structures and Functions. In J.-L. Dorier, M. Artaud, M. Artigue, R. Berthelot, & R. Floris Proceedings of the XIe École d'été de didactique des mathématiques. (pp. 3-32). Editions la Pensée Sauvage.Durand-Guerrier, V., & Nicolas Saby, N. (2023). Usages de la théorie des champs conceptuels en didactique des mathématiques. The example of transitivity. Caminhos da Educação Matemática em Revista, 13 (4),118-134. ⟨hal-04585866⟩Vandebrouck, F. (dir.) (2008). La classe de mathématiques: activités des élèves et pratiques des enseignants. OCTARES Éditions.Vergnaud, G. (1990). Conceptual field theory. Recherches en didactique des mathématiques, 10(2/3), 133-170. In practice Program18:00: Presentation by Viviane Durand-Guerrier 18:40: Presentation by Ghislaine Gueudet 19:20: Presentation by Nicolas Grenier-Boley and Stéphanie Bridoux20:00: Q&A around the three presentationsModalities Required registration via the PhD school website or direct link to the registration form.Or online participation link (via TEAMS).

JuryProf. Nicolas DENDONCKER (UNamur), PresidentProf. Sabine HENRY (UNamur), SecretaryDr. Sébastien DUJARDIN (UNamur)Prof. Pierre OZER (ULiège)Prof. Emmanuel TWARABAMENYE (University of Rwanda)Prof. Caroline MICHELLIER (MRAC and UCLouvain)AbstractThis research investigates community vulnerability to landslides and floods in Northwestern Rwanda, hazards that frequently interact to produce compound disasters. The research focused on understanding the institutional, social, and structural factors that shape vulnerability and adaptive capacity in this disaster-prone region. Using a mixed-methods approach at local-scale, including institutional analysis, household surveys (n = 904), and field observations, the research highlights how vulnerability is shaped by socio-economic conditions, weak institutional coordination, and limited adaptive capacity. A Contextualized Vulnerability Index (CoVI) was developed to map vulnerability patterns, revealing particularly high vulnerability in landslide-prone and dual-hazard zones. The analysis of adaptive capacity showed that while awareness of hazards is high due to lived experiences, financial constraints, and limited technical knowledge hinder communities' ability to adapt effectively. The study contributes to the literature on social vulnerability and disaster risk reduction by emphasizing the importance of locally grounded, evidence-based strategies to strengthen community resilience in hazard-prone regions.

At a time when bacterial resistance to antibiotics is a public health problem, Professor Stéphane Vincent's team is currently developing dynamic constitutional frameworks (Dynamic Constitutional Frameworks, DCF): a molecular system that would be able to break down certain resistances and thus deliver antibiotics as close as possible to pathogens.

AbstractIn CO2-rich atmospheres such as that of Venus, the study of water vapor requires the use of H2O collision parameters for CO2. However, due to a lack of data, models still use collision parameters for air to estimate the abundance of water vapor in this type of atmosphere. In this thesis, new experimental laboratory measurements of the collision parameters of H2O, HDO, and D2O by CO2 were carried out. These were then used as the basis for dedicated theoretical calculations. Their impact was evaluated using radiative transfer simulations applied to the atmosphere of Venus, under conditions close to those of future observations by the European EnVision mission. The results clearly show that using collision parameters for air instead of CO2 can lead to an overestimation of nearly 40% of the abundance of water vapor in the mesosphere and to inversion difficulties in the troposphere. This work thus provides essential elements for improving the spectral analysis of CO2-rich atmospheres.JuryDr. Ha TRAN (Sorbonne University), ChairProf. Muriel LEPÈRE (University of Namur), SecretaryDr. Emmanuel MARCQ (University of Versailles)Dr. David JACQUEMART (Sorbonne University)Dr. Laurence RÉGALIA (University of Reims)Dr. Séverine ROBERT (Royal Institute for Space Aeronomy, Belgium)

AbstractNosocomial infections are a major public health problem, exacerbated by the global spread of bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Faced with this challenge, it is crucial to explore alternatives or complementary strategies to conventional treatments. Among these, the use of copper is attracting renewed interest. This metal has natural antibacterial properties that have been recognized since ancient times. It acts through multiple mechanisms such as membrane alteration, the generation of reactive oxygen species, and the denaturation of proteins and nucleic acids, leading to rapid cell death. These characteristics make it an effective biocidal agent in many contexts, particularly in hospitals.However, the selective pressure exerted by the increased presence of copper in the environment has led to the emergence of specific resistance systems in certain bacteria. These systems allow strict control of copper homeostasis by limiting its intracellular accumulation through efflux, sequestration, or oxidation mechanisms. In Caulobacter crescentus, an environmental bacterial model, copper resistance is based in particular on the Pco system. This system is composed of the PcoB protein, located in the outer membrane. Although its structure has been partially described in E. coli, its precise function remains unclear. Preliminary observations suggest that it may be involved in the export of copper from the periplasm to the outside of the cell, thus acting as a release pathway.To explore the role of PcoB in bacterial copper resistance, this study focused on the structural and functional characterization of the protein. After extraction and purification, PcoB was incorporated into artificial liposomes to develop an in vitro transport assay to assess its ability to release copper across a lipid bilayer. At the same time, a truncated mutant lacking the disordered N-terminal region was produced and subjected to the same analyses. The comparison between the complete and truncated forms aims to determine the involvement of this flexible region in the transport mechanism and stability of the protein. These approaches have laid the initial experimental foundations for studying the transport mechanism of PcoB and constitute a first step towards a detailed understanding of how the Pco system works. They also open up prospects for the development of new antibacterial strategies targeting copper management systems in bacteria.JuryProf. Johan WOUTERS (UNamur), ChairDr. Catherine MICHAUX (UNamur), SecretaryProf. Jean-Yves MATROULE (UNamur)Dr. Guillaume ROUSSEL (UCLouvain)Prof. Francesca CECCHET (UNamur)Prof. Hennie VALKENIER (ULB)

In line with its predecessors, ICEL 2026 will provide an excellent opportunity for the intellectual and social exchanges that keep our community closely connected. It will bring together participants from all over the world involved in the research, development, and manufacturing of emissive materials. A wide array of subjects will be explored, offering a comprehensive perspective on contemporary advances in these fields. We extend a warm invitation for the dissemination of recent breakthroughs in related topics, with a particular emphasis on fostering the active participation of young and motivated researchers.We especially expect to cover the following topics:Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence emittersRadical emittersOrganometallic complexesPerovskitesLasingCircularly polarized luminescenceLight emission from exciplexesGreen- and biophotonicsComputational modeling of light-emitting materialsAll practical information (registration, abstract submission, and accommodation) is available on the ICEL2026 website. Access the ICEL2026 website