Pierre and Marie Curie University

The Ranking of Pierre and Marie Curie University, France

http://www.upmc.fr/

Pierre and Marie Curie University (Université Pierre et Marie Curie or UPMC - Paris Universitas or Paris 6) is a French university, principal heir to the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Paris. UPMC is now the largest scientific and medical complex in France, active in all fields of research with scope and achievements at the highest level, as demonstrated by the many awards regularly won by UPMC researchers, and the many international partnerships it maintains across all five continents.

It has over 180 laboratories, most of them associated with the Centre national de la recherche scientifique. It is located on the Jussieu Campus in the Latin Quarter of the 5th arrondissement in Paris.

Some of its most notable institutes and laboratories include the Institut Henri Poincaré, Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, Laboratoire d'informatique de Paris 6, Institut de mathématiques de Jussieu/Chevaleret (shared with University Paris Diderot) and the Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel (shared with Ecole Normale Supérieure). The University's Faculty of Medicine includes the Pitié-Salpêtrière and Saint-Antoine hospitals.

Academic Reputation

The University is ranked 39th in the World and 1st in France by the prestigious Academic Ranking of World Universities. The UPMC is a member of Paris Universitas.

History

The campus was built in the 1950s and 60s, on a site previously occupied by wine storehouses. The Dean, Marc Zamanski, saw the Jussieu campus standing as a tangible symbol of scientific thought in the heart of Paris, with the Faculty of Science, set in the Latin Quarter, as part of an intellectual and spiritual continuum linked to the university history of Paris. In 1968, the Paris Faculty of Science was divided into a number of different universities. The University of Paris 6 became the scientific center and was set up in 1971; it shares the Jussieu campus with the University of Paris 7 and the Paris Geophysical Institute (Institut de Physique du Globe). In 1974, the University of Paris 6 chose a prestigious champion when it adopted the official title "Université Pierre et Marie Curie", and ever since has endeavored to perpetuate the scientific legacy of these forebears. UPMC is now the largest scientific and medical complex in France, active in all fields of research with scope and achievements at the highest level.

Research Sectors

Research at UPMC covers fields in all the major areas of international research, including life sciences, health, genomics & post-genomics, sciences of the universe and the environment, optics, laser technology, information processing, communications, and modeling.

Research falls into four broad, interdisciplinary sectors :

• Modeling & Engineering (Pôle modélisation et ingénierie)
• Matter & New Materials (Pôle matière et nouveaux matériaux)
• Space, Environment & Ecology (Pôle espace, environnement, écologie)
• Life Sciences & Health (Pôle sciences de la vie et de la santé)
  

These sectors cover a full range, from pure and basic research to applied science. Many research laboratories are involved in more than one sector. The development of research projects can be seen as the foundation stone for innovation and as the medium-term response to the challenges of a modern society.

Modeling & Engineering

UPMC has achieved levels of excellence in most fields in the modeling & engineering sector. UPMC is a leading university in the world in mathematics: pure mathematics, digital computation, probability, statistics, and combinatorics. Information Technology is focused on areas of excellence: architecture, networks, systems, artificial intelligence, programming and scientific computation. In the field of electronics, work is concentrated on the articulation of architecture, electronics, artificial intelligence and signal processing.

In mechanics strong links have been built up with applied mathematics and macroscopic physics, working on future developments: fluid dynamics, instability, turbulence, energy transfers, complex systems and coupled phenomena.

In this sector, UPMC encourages initiatives in scientific and medical imaging, artificial intelligence and robotics. Such genuinely multidisciplinary initiatives involve the concerted efforts of mathematicians and experts in electronics, information technology and mechanical science, who have the facilities for working with medical teams wishing to collaborate on projects on medical imaging, micro-surgery, assistance for disabilities and artificial organs. Research cooperation agreements have been set up with leading industrial groups and these cooperation programs will now be institutionalized through the new department for industrial and business activities .

Matter & New Materials

Research in physics at UPMC covers virtually every field in the discipline. Subject areas which are often cross-disciplinary, involving a number of research laboratories, have been organized around four lines where the university has developed extensive expertise and is now at the leading edge of research :

• basic phenomena: fields, particles, atoms and molecules
• optics (lasers and measurement) and diluted matter
• condensed matter: structure, order and disorder and complex materials
• nanonetworks, surfaces and interfaces

The chemistry laboratories have based their lines of research on the principle of interdependence between synthesis, analysis, studies of structures and properties of new chemical compounds :

• design and production of new materials
• characterization of new materials using different forms of spectroscopy and microscopic techniques, and the study of their properties
• studies of reaction mechanisms
• modeling chemical reactions
• development of new analytical techniques

Projects involving a number of disciplines are mainly joint studies of new materials. Applications concern fields as diverse as concretes, catalysis and new materials for rapid information technology, for analytical sciences and environmental tests, as well as new forms of energy storage and conversion.

Space, Environment & Ecology

Environmental studies, ranging from global to local, are at the borderlines or intersections of physics, chemistry, earth sciences and biology, and have expanded greatly. Two key lines have been developed :

• the environment in the terrestrial context with research projects related to climate change, the impact of human activities on the continental and marine ecosystems, and the management of natural resources.
• the environment in the context of space for astrophysics, with the establishment of the Paris Institute of Astrophysics, and investigations in the field of astroparticles.

Life Sciences & Health

Modern biology requires an integrated approach encompassing genetics, biochemistry and molecular biology, cell biology, the biology of development and physiology. UPMC has focused on two strategic areas as priorities:

1) further development of Group Research Institutes

The IFR at Saint-Antoine Teaching Hospital specializes in the physiopathology of cancers, inflammatory processes, and the hormonal mechanisms involved.

The Pitié-Salpêtrière Teaching Hospital contains two IFRs, one concentrating on neuroscience and the other on the heart, muscle and vessels. A third area of research covers the subjects of immunity and infection.

The IFR on Cell Communication & Regulation on the “Cordeliers” campus specializes in the field of cell biology, nutrition and immunology.

On the Jussieu campus, the IFR for integrated biology focuses on the integrated study of cellular and molecular mechanisms involved in development, reproduction, and the major physiological functions of animal and plant organisms, and their evolution.

2) network development of the interface between physics, chemistry, biology and medicine—by establishing a network of laboratories around an interdisciplinary technological platform development of a group program on post-genomics and proteomics, and specifically focused on the phenotyping and imaging of small animals.

Some statistics about UPMC:

• 30,000 students (22,000 science students – 8000 medical students)
• 8000 post-graduate students
• 2200 post-graduate diplomas (DEA and DESS i.e. master's equivalent) and 150 engineering degrees (master's equivalent) awarded each year
• 4000 teaching academics/researchers
• 3000 engineers & technicians, administrative & logistic staff, 4 broad interdisciplinary sectors of research
• 180 research laboratories
• 300 doctorates in medicine
• 700 doctorates in science based upon thesis work
• 550 contractual cooperation agreements for research on innovative programs
• 330 partner institutes in science and medicine
• 100 contractual agreements under the terms of research projects subsidized by the European Commission
• 6 Centers of Excellence selected by the European Commission to host doctoral students who are granted Marie Curie scholarships
• 4250 students of 121 different nationalities

UPMC Doctoral Schools

The UPMC Doctoral Schools (Les écoles doctorales de l'UPMC) are built around their own research teams, which are mostly associated with the CNRS, INSERM, INRA, INRIA, or IRD, as well as with research teams from other universities and partner organisations in the Île-de-France area. Each school organises doctoral studies in its own particular field and these are grouped around the four main research themes of the university. Links below are to UPMC branches, or to school head offices elsewhere:

Pole of Modeling and Engineering
ED 130 - PUBLISH: Information technology, telecommunication and electronics
ED 386 - Mathematical sciences
ED 390 - The processes engineering and high technologies
ED 391 - SMAE: Mechanical, acoustic & electronic sciences

Pole of Matter and New Materials
ED 107 - Doctoral school of physics
ED 381 - Elementary components - complex systems
ED 388 - Physical chemistry and analytical chemistry
ED 389 - Physics from particles to solids, models & experiments
ED 397 - Physics and chemistry of materials
ED 406 - Molecular chemistry

Pole of Spaces, Environment, and Ecology
ED 127 - Astronomy and Astrophysics
ED 129 - The environmental Sciences
ED 392 - Diversity of Living Organisms
ED 398 - Geosciences and Natural Resources

Pole of life sciences and health
ED 158 - 3C: Brain, Cognition and Behavior
ED 215 - B2M: Biology and molecular biochemistry
ED 223 - Logic of living organisms
ED 387 - Biology interfaces with chemistry, physics and information technology
ED 393 - Public health and biomedical information sciences
ED 394 - Physiology and physiopathology

Pierre and Marie Curie University or UPMC was ranked 149th in the 2008 THES-QS World University Ranking.