This project provides support for a workshop in Paris of Fall 2007 to discuss the formation of a new Franco-American Doctoral Network. The goal of this network is the large-scale exchange of doctoral students between the U.S. and France in the subject areas of energy and sustainability. The U.S. principal investigator is Michael Scott of University of Florida, and the two co-PIs are Melanie Loots from UIUC and Steven McLaughlin from Georgia Tech. The French collaborators are the Conference des Presidents d'Universites, the official National Council of French Universities.
The primary goals of this workshop are to: establish a concrete set of objectives and outcomes for the Doctoral Network; obtain commitments from all participating U.S. and French institutions to facilitate the goal of starting the Doctoral Network in Fall 2008; establish the administrative and financial structure of the network; establish an operational framework for the network to include semiannual workshops and language and cultural resources for the students.
This doctoral network plans to leverage the research and educational strengths in the U.S. and France while strengthening research and institutional ties between the two countries. It will likely provide an outstanding international experience for U.S. students to help create a globally-engaged scientific workforce. The network also plans to include a formal assessment program that will study the impact of international co-advising of students, which can be used to inform other networks, and will actively work to increase the number of underrepresented minorities who have international research experiences.
