Prestigious visit by Prof. Jean-Luc Brédas
On 9 June 2023, the NISM and naXys Institutes, the Physics and Chemistry Departments and the Namur Research College were delighted to welcome Prof. Jean-Luc Brédas from the University of Arizona. A prestigious speaker of international renown, Prof. Brédas completed his doctoral thesis with Prof. Jean-Marie André at the University of Namur.
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From the twinkling of fireflies to the stripes of zebras: mathematics explain synchronisation
Very often in nature, we observe phenomena of natural synchronisation and the emergence of regular patterns: a crowd applauding in unison at the end of a concert, the cells in the walls of the heart pulsating in a coordinated fashion, black and white stripes on a zebra, brown spots surrounded by black in leopards... But how can we explain this uniformity if there is no global controller or explicit rule directing this coordination?
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ESA's BepiColombo prepares for its third Mercury flyby
BepiColombo will fly past Mercury on 19 June 2023. It will pass close to the planet's surface at an altitude of approximately 236 km. BepiColombo is an ESA/JAXA mission involving a team of researchers from the University of Namur (naXys institute).
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The European satellite Euclid launches on 1 July to map galaxies: UNamur involved in the mission
The European Euclid satellite will be launched into space from Cape Canaveral in the United States at 5.11pm on Saturday 1 July. The telescope is intended to provide a more accurate map of billions of galaxies over a distance of around twelve billion light years. A team of Belgian scientists and engineers from UCLouvain, ULB, ULg, UNamur and Ghent University, as well as the Space center in Liège (CSL), took part in this ten-year project, bringing together more than 3,500 people from 21 countries.
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The naXys Institute SPACE pole, expertise born of a long tradition of studying complex systems
Modelling the Universe to understand how it came into being, how it works and how the physical objects that make it up work - that's the day-to-day work of the researchers in the naXys SPACE cluster. It's a subject that fascinates not only scientists. An international conference on "Complex Planetary Systems (CPSII)" is being organised at UNamur from 3 to 7 July 2023, with activities open to the public, including two round tables, a show at the Delta and a Space Quiz!
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Producing glass like the Romans: scientific research with a life-size experiment!
On 15 and 16 July, as part of the Gallo-Roman Rendezvous, the Specularia research project, run by the University of Namur and the Malagne Archaeopark, will be put through its paces in Malagne. This unique and exceptional experiment will give visitors a hands-on opportunity to discover what experimental archaeology is all about and to witness the different stages in the production of Roman window glass. This life-size experiment is part of the second phase of the Spécularia research project led by Géraldine Frère, a doctoral researcher in archaeology at the Institut Patrimoines, Transmissions, Héritages (PaTHs).
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Understanding the history of violence against women in Senegal: research wins ARES "Gender and Health" award
Angélique Aristondo, a C2W post-doctoral fellow at UNamur, has distinguished herself by winning the second 2023 Gender and Health Research Award from the ARES Women and Science Committee. Her research project focuses on violence against women in Senegal.
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XVIII International Workshop on Artificial Life and Environmental Computation WIVACE 2024
The workshop provides a forum for the discussion of new research directions and applications in Artificial Life, Evolutionary Computation and in related fields, where different disciplines and research areas could effectively meet. It was first held in 2007 in Sampieri (Ragusa), as the incorporation of two separate workshops (WIVA and GSICE).
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A quality research environment through the Namur Research College
At the beginning of each academic year, the Board of Trustees grants Namur Research College (NARC) Fellowship status to researchers who demonstrate a high level of research achievement and who have recently received a prestigious award or funding. A look back at the fellowship of Professor Frederik De Laender.
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Participatory funding: Specularia, experimental archaeology project
The Department of Art History and Archaeology of UNamur is participating for the first time in an experimental archaeology project, within the framework of a doctoral thesis on the production of glass in the Roman period. Conducted in partnership with Malagne, the Rochefort archaeopark, the Specularia project aims to gain a better understanding of the reality of the gestures and techniques of Gallo-Roman craftsmen and to scientifically validate hypotheses that are still debated today. To carry out this experiment, the Department of Art History and Archaeology is launching its first participatory funding.
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UNamur researchers published in Communications Physics
Networks are fundamental to the modelling of complex systems, systems composed of an incredibly large number of interacting parts. Applications are numerous, in neuroscience, epidemiology, but also in computer science and engineering. A collaboration between the University of Catania (Italy) and the University of Namur, led by Professor Timoteo Carletti of the Department of Mathematics (naXys Institute), has developed a new formalism that allows the modelling of systems where several parts interact at the same time (multi-body) and in an asymmetric way. This research has been published in the prestigious journal Communication Physics, part of the Nature group.
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BABots: a European bio-robotics project led by UNamur researchers
The design and analysis of the individual and collective behaviour of small biological vermiform robots: this is the objective of BABots, an ambitious interdisciplinary research project led by the University of Namur and conducted by a consortium of seven European partners. This project could lead to multiple and promising solutions in the field of agriculture, bio-industry or even industry and medicine.
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