Collège de France - Sélection

Collège de FranceAnnée 2023-2024Grand événementGrand événement - Vers une société résiliente au changement climatique / Building a Climate Resilient Society : Feeding 10 Billion SustainablySir Charles GodfrayCBE FRS, University of Oxford

Collège de FranceAnnée 2023-2024Grand événementGrand événement - Vers une société résiliente au changement climatique / Building a Climate Resilient Society : Urban Epidemic Risk at the Time of Anthropocene and Climate ChangePhilippe SansonettiProfesseur du Collège de FranceRésuméAs the world's population grows, so does the rate of urbanisation.The megacities that are emerging (20 cities with more than 15 million inhabitants, half of them in the south) combine numerous vulnerabilities to the risk of epidemics (or infectious diseases in general). These vulnerabilities are set to increase under the impact of climate change, particularly global warming, conditions which generally favour microbial growth and proliferation.Factors favouring urban epidemic risks are: (1) Deterioration in water and food hygiene. (2) Urban air pollution. (3) Movement towards urban areas of mosquito vectors establishing vectorial systems allowing the introduction or return of pathologies linked to this entomological risk, such as dengue fever. These entomological factors are particularly influenced by climate change. (4) Population density facilitating human-to-human transmission, accentuated by large gatherings (cultural, sporting, etc.). (5) Urban and peri-urban poverty, a major vulnerability that climate change will exacerbate. (6) Finally, large cities are also major air transport hubs, facilitating the spread of the pandemic.Given the limited time available, the water risk will be taken as an example of the impact of climate change, in particular global warming, on water quality, both in terms of wastewater treatment and distribution. The formation and development of biofilms, which are highly sensitive to global warming, will be developed in particular.Finally, major cities are also at risk from the human behaviour that characterises the Anthropocene. One example is the immoderate and often unjustified use of antibiotics, which is causing a pandemic of antibiotic resistance due to the dissemination of antibiotics in the environment. It also seems to be leading to a reduction in the richness and diversity of microbial ecosystems, and in particular human microbiota, which is linked to the emergence of so-called "epidemic, post-modern, non-communicable" diseases whose incidence is increasing at a worrying rate, such as allergy/atopy, autoimmune diseases, chronic inflammatory bowel diseases and colorectal cancer.

Alessandro MorbidelliFormation planétaire : de la Terre aux exoplanètesCollège de FranceAnnée 2023 - 2024Leçon inaugurale : Déterminisme et stochasticité en formation planétaireRésuméPendant des siècles, on s'est attendu à ce que tous les systèmes planétaires, en vertu de l'universalité des lois physiques, ressemblent approximativement au nôtre, avec de petites planètes rocheuses à l'intérieur et des géantes gazeuses à l'extérieur, toutes sur des orbites presque circulaires et coplanaires. Cependant, la découverte de nombreuses planètes extrasolaires nous a révélé la grande diversité de systèmes planétaires.Cette leçon inaugurale présentera l'état actuel des connaissances sur les structures des systèmes planétaires connus, tout en situant notre propre Système solaire dans ce vaste contexte. Elle abordera ensuite la question de savoir comment des lois universelles peuvent donner lieu à une telle diversité. Cette diversité peut résulter de conditions initiales radicalement différentes, mais les observations modernes des disques protoplanétaires révèlent que, malgré certaines variations, ces pépinières de formation planétaire partagent de nombreuses caractéristiques communes. La discussion portera alors sur certains processus qui interviennent dans la formation planétaire, en distinguant ceux qui semblent être déterministes (où de petites différences dans les conditions initiales entraînent de légères différences finales) de ceux qui sont plus complexes et peuvent conduire à des comportements stochastiques (où les trajectoires évolutives divergent de manière exponentielle, donnant ainsi des résultats radicalement différents). La prise de conscience que la formation planétaire est très sensible aux contingences nous amènera à réfléchir sur la probabilité de l'existence de planètes similaires à la nôtre ailleurs dans la galaxie, ainsi que sur la possibilité du développement de la vie dans des mondes exotiques.

Collège de FranceAnnée 2023-2024Grand événementGrand événement - Vers une société résiliente au changement climatique / Building a Climate Resilient Society : The Climate Biodiversity Nexus in the OceanChris BowlerCentre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). Professeur invité, Collège de FranceRésuméMarine ecosystems play a crucial role in supporting societal needs and human well-being by providing resources like food, carbon storage, coastal protection, and recreational opportunities. However, the impact of climate change on marine biodiversity and ecosystem functioning is a significant concern. The ocean acts as a sink for heat, CO2, and waste, mitigating climate change, but this also alters its chemical composition. Simultaneously, the ocean faces a biodiversity crisis, with over-exploited fisheries and unprecedented rates of environmental change. These twin threats fundamentally affect marine biological systems and the services they provide. Currently, there is little connection between climate change and biodiversity research, particularly in the marine context. Uncovering the nexus between marine biodiversity and climate is crucial for understanding the impacts of climate change on ocean ecosystems. By improving observational capacity, advancing modelling capabilities, and integrating theory, such studies can have a profound impact on local, regional and global ocean governance, and particularly with respect to pollution control, ocean health, and the management of marine resources from fisheries to mineral exploitation.Chris Bowler is research director at the CNRS and director of the Plant and Algae Genomics Laboratory at the Institut de biologie de l'École normale supérieure in Paris. He received his PhD from the University of Ghent in Belgium, followed by postdoctoral studies at the Rockefeller University in New York. In 1994 he established his own laboratory working on signaling in plants and marine diatoms at the Stazione Zoologica in Naples, Italy, and in 2003 he took up his current position in Paris. He has been a member of EMBO since 1995, received the CNRS Silver Medal in 2010, ERC Advanced Awards in 2012 and 2018 and the Grand Prix Scientifique de la Fondation Louis D de l'Institut de France in 2015. In 2016-2017 he was a Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Studies at Harvard University, USA. In 2018 he was elected member of the French Academy of Agriculture, and during the academic year 2020-2021 he held the annual chair as Professor in biodiversity and ecosystems at the Collège de France. His main research interest is the understanding of the response of plants and marine diatoms to environmental signals, through functional and comparative genomics. Since 2021 he is the scientific director of the Tara Oceans project to explore the biodiversity, ecology and evolution of plankton in the world's ocean. In 2023 he was elected member of the Accademia dei Lincei in Italy.

Collège de FranceAnnée 2023-2024Grand événementGrand événement - Vers une société résiliente au changement climatique / Building a Climate Resilient Society : Climate Change and Health – From Impacts to ActionSir Andy HainesLondon School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Collège de FranceAnnée 2023-2024Grand événementGrand événement - Vers une société résiliente au changement climatique / Building a Climate Resilient Society : Green Growth and InvestmentPhilippe AghionProfesseur du Collège de France

Collège de FranceAnnée 2023-2024Grand événementGrand événement - Vers une société résiliente au changement climatique / Building a Climate Resilient Society : Economic Consequences of Climate ChangeProfessor Elizabeth RobinsonThe London School of Economics and Political Science

Collège de FranceAnnée 2023-2024Grand événementGrand événement - Vers une société résiliente au changement climatique / Building a Climate Resilient Society : UK Response OverallBaroness Brown of CambridgeDBE FREng FRS, Climate Change Committee

Collège de FranceAnnée 2023-2024Grand événementGrand événement - Vers une société résiliente au changement climatique / Building a Climate Resilient Society : French Response OverallProfessor Corinne Le QuéréCBE FRS, University of East Anglia

Collège de FranceAnnée 2023-2024Grand événementGrand événement - Vers une société résiliente au changement climatique / Building a Climate Resilient Society : Sustainable Chemistry and Hydrogen as Pillars of the Energy TransitionDr Deborah JonesCentre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)RésuméClean hydrogen, as an energy vector and a sustainable chemical feedstock, is a pillar of the energy transition and key contributor to meeting the targets for net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and thereby to building a climate-resilient society. Reaching these objectives requires us to ensure viable materials solutions for implementation of hydrogen technologies in the short term, while also addressing the long-term requirement of safeguarding the sustainability of the hydrogen sector through a radical reconsideration of the criticality of the chemistries, materials and components.Deborah Jones (B.Sc., Ph.D. University of London, King's College) is Director of Research at CNRS at the Institute for Molecular and Materials Chemistry in Montpellier (ICGM), of which she was associate director 2015-2020. Her interests encompass the development and operando characterisation of hydrogen energy materials in particular for proton and anion exchange membrane fuel cells and electrolysers. Author/co-author of > 250 publications, and inventor on 17 patents related to fuel cell and electrolyser materials, she is a former vice-president of the International Society of Electrochemistry, Fellow of the Electrochemical Society (2015), recipient of the Sir William Grove award of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy (2016) and of the Schönbein Gold Medal (2023). Experienced EU collaborative project coordinator, other of her responsibilities in European research include those of chair of the ERC PE4 Consolidator Grants panel and former vice-chair of the Scientific Committee of the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking. Deborah is associate director of the Occitanie Region "Key Challenge" on Clean Hydrogen gathering all academic research laboratories working on hydrogen topics in the Occitanie region, and director of the Laboratoire Commun between CNRS-ICGM and Michelin, on Sustainability of Materials and Processes for the Hydrogen Sector since its inception in July 2022.