Los Angeles OST Newsletter #18 - Sept 2011

Foreword

The team of the French Office for Science and Technology in Los Angeles hopes that you had a great summer and wishes you the best for this coming fall. After a month of vacation, it is time for our newsletter to find its way back to your mailboxes.

The summer months have been rich in discoveries and publications, as you will see in the news sections, with great emphasis on the energy and life sciences fields. In Orange County, a tri-generation station uses waste-water to produce energy, heat and hydrogen fuel, while UCLA carries out a nationwide clinical trial aimed at testing a medical device that allows physicians to keep a heart ’warm and beating’ while travelling across the country to be transplanted in a patient. These are just a couple of examples of what you will find in this newsletter.

On September 5-7, a joint visit by François Delattre, Ambassador of France to the United States, and Yannick d’Escatha, President of the French National Center for Space Studies (CNES), was held at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and California Institute of Technology (Caltech), to demonstrate and strengthen the collaborations that exist between our two countries in the field of aerospace sciences. During his stay in Los Angeles, Mr. Delattre awarded the rank of "Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur" to Dr. Charles Elachi, Director of JPL and Vice-President of Caltech. Congratulations to Dr. Elachi for receiving this prestigious award!

Last but certainly not least, there will be lots of changes in the team as this newsletter will be the last one to be co-signed by Mireille Guyader. During the five years she spent in Los Angeles, Mireille established and developed the local branch of the French Office for Science and Technology. We wish her well for her next position in the United States and welcome her successor, Fabien Agenes, who takes his position on September first.
In addition, we welcome Sara Chandler, who is currently studying at USC and just joined the team as an intern.

Bonne lecture!

Mireille Guyader, Ex Scientific Attache
Fabien Agenes, Scientific Attache
Thomas Biedermann, Deputy Scientific Attache
Sara Chandler, Science and Technology Intern

Table of Contents

SCIENCES IN THE US