Emeline Hily is young researcher in environmental economics with the Joint Research Unit Laboratory of Forest Economics (LEF). Her research focuses on the development of financial incentives to encourage forest owners to protect biodiversity on their land in a context of climate change.

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Last September, together with six other PhD students and Postdocs supported by LabEx ARBRE, Emeline helped organize the first ARBRE PhD and Postdoc Seminar – with great success.

Recently, Emeline  completed the Science and Mediation doctoral course, a project which prepares PhD students studying with the University of Lorraine to develop how they communicate their science and work with a non-scientific public.

She is currently working on her thesis in a cross-disciplinary context, as part of a collaboration between the LERFoB and LEF joint research units at INRA.

To read the interview Emeline granted us recently, please follow this link  –
ARBRE Interview – Emeline Hily

2015 marks the second year for “Science and Mediation”, a cross-disciplinary doctoral program jointly offered by the University of Lorraine, LabEx ARBRE and INRA, in partnership with the associations Paris-Montagne and La Vigie de l’Eau.

The Association Paris Montagne, based in Paris, is a program geared to making science and research accessible to youth from disadvantaged and isolated areas. La Vigie de l’Eau offers a meeting place and educational center for the general public, students and researchers in Vittel.

On January 12-13, the Science and Mediation program welcomed back 29 doctoral students from eight doctoral schools associated with the University of Lorraine. The diverse range of disciplines and fields of research represented within the program has considerably enriched discussions and exchanges.

The program includes an introduction to scientific mediation punctuated by a debate on the question “Why is scientific mediation important?”, as well as work on the scientific approach and presentations by each PhD student in which they present his or her work to non-specialized audiences (highlight profiles of doctoral students who have completed the program are available at the following address : http://eureka.lorraine.eu/jahia/webdav/site/eureka/shared/simpleviewer/110616_fr/index.html.

For details about the content and organization of the program, please follow the following links :
Science and Mediation doctoral program_Part 1
Science and Mediation doctoral program_Part 2

20-21 January 2015
INRA Nancy-Lorraine Center
LEGF conference room

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The Pezizomycetes belong to an early diverging class within the Pezizomycotina.The Pezizomycetes are either saprobic, mycorrhizal or pathogens; the biotic interactions of many taxa are not known. Species are found in soils, wood decays, leaves, roots and dung. Some Pezizomycetes species are well know due to their edible fructifications (so-called ascocarps) such as truffles and morchels. Ascobolus immersus, a Pezizomycete species living on herbivore dung (coprophilous) has been introduced in the late 1930s as a model organism for genetic studies. To date, only the genome of two Pezizomycetes have been published: Tuber melanosporum (Martin et al., 2010) and Pyronema confluens (Traegger et al., 2013).

To help close the sequence gap among basal filamentous ascomycetes, and to allow conclusions about the evolution of fungal development, the genome and transcriptomes of six additional Pezizomycetes have been sequenced: Ascobolus immersus, Choiromyces venosus, Morchella conica, Terfezia boudieri, Tuber aestivum and Tuber magnatum.

A workshop will be held at INRA-Nancy on January 20-21, 2015 to discuss the structure and evolution of these Pezizomycete genomes and comparative analyses of their gene repertoires.

To consult the workshop home page and the full program, follow this link:
Program

On December 11 and 12, the International Scientific Advisory Board (ISAB) for LabEx ARBRE met at the INRA Nancy-Lorraine Center in Champenoux. The board was composed of a panel of seven scientists recognized for their expertise in the different areas of research included in LabEx. Over two days, the ISAB board members interacted with members of the ARBRE Executive Board and ARBRE project leaders to learn about the scope of LabEx and the direction and quality of work within the ARBRE community.   They also had a chance to visit labs and technical platforms located on-site in Champenoux. Two years after the launch of ARBRE, the ISAB was asked to evaluate ARBREs scientific strategy and the priorities set by each of the thematic actions or work packages. In the context of a competitive international environment, this advisory evaluation is important for the future positioning of ARBRE and the INRA Nancy-Lorraine Center relative to other major research centers located in Europe and the United States. The advice, suggestions and conclusions of the ISAB will be taken into account for the evaluation of submitted project proposals for the ARBRE 2015 Call for Proposals. The next International Scientific Advisory Board meeting will be held at the end of 2016.

To read more about the International Scientific Advisory Board members, please follow this link – The ISAB

On November 25, the Lorraine Regional Council organized its first evening promoting higher education, research and science-society relations to announce the award winners for distinguished dissertations and research.  The occasion also marked the first time presentation of the Regional award for Science and Society.

The participatory research project SURVIVORS, lead by Labex ARBRE, INRA, CPIE Nancy-Champenoux and the college Duvivier d’Einville au Jard, was also awarded a special mention for innovation. For three years, some 80 students will experience research as young scientists – both a unique way to discover the scientific investigative processes but also a window into the many career possibilities in science.

Wednesday, November 26 marked yet another highlight for the project with on-site visits from researchers to the classrooms to present students with the experiments first results .

The SURVIVORS project has also been selected to be included in the international conference “Science & You”, which will be held in Nancy in June 2015. The SURVIVORS students have been invited by researchers to participate in the conference by giving a slide-show presentation on the project, with the help of their English teachers..

The GFPF seminar (Groupe Francophone de Pathologie Forestière) was held recently for three days in Hendaye from 14-16 October 2014
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Jointly organized by the Département de la Santé des Forêts (DSF-MAAF) and the UMR IAM and partially funded by grants from Labex ARBRE, the seminar gathered 38 participants, mostly from DSF, INRA Bordeaux and INRA Nancy-Lorraine, including 10 scientists or technicians from the joint research unit UMR IAM (Tree/Microorganism Interactions). Fourteen presentations were given, including six by IAM team members, about recent results on the epidemiology of the major pathosystems currently being studied: Poplar rust, Alder Phytophthora and Ash Dieback.

The seminar’s major focus was on the introduction of emerging diseases, such as Ash dieback, ink diseases (on oaks and chestnuts) due to Phytophthora cinnamomi and Pitch Canker, a new disease on Pines caused by Gibberella circinata. This fungus is common in North America where it causes canker and necrosis on twigs, branches, trunks and roots of many pine species. It was introduced in Europe in the 1990s and is now well established in northern Spain. Aside from a few cases  that appeared in the early 2000s, the disease has not yet spread to France.   The GFPF meeting also included field tours of forests in Spain to visit infected areas to better understand the disease symptoms and the host range. Discussions also addressed the risk of Pitch Canker spreading to France, particularly to southwestern France where the climate would favor establishment of this disease and where the presence of susceptible species is particularly dense.

Claude Husson, GFPF

To read more about GFPF, follow this link : https://colloque6.inra.fr/gfpf2014

Photo : Visit of a pine forest in Spain with presence of Pitch canker caused by Gibberella circinata

A seminar focused on plant fungus interactions

17-18 November
INRA Nancy-Lorraine Center,
Champenoux

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The Joint Research Unit for Tree-Microorganism Interactions  (IAM – INRA, Nancy-Lorraine / Universite of Lorraine) and the department of Organismic Interactions (Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany) are co-organizing an interdepartmental workshop on plant fungus interactions.

This workshop will be held on November 17 & 18 and will offer two days of talks and presentations, poster sessions and various social events (a truffle orchard visit, dinner, etc.)

We are expecting fruitful discussions that could lead to future collaborative projects. The scientific program will be divided into three sessions: (i) Signaling, (ii) Effectors, and (iii) Comparative Genomics / Population Genomics.

For more information, please visit the – Seminar home page
Crédit photo : Cora Guennoc – INRA