Welcomed by CEA Chairman François Jacq, the leaders of the CNRS and UVSQ as well as numerous elected officials, Prime Minister, Jean Castex and the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, Frédérique Vidal were given a tour of the Climate and Environmental Sciences Laboratory (LSCE–CEA/CNRS/UVSQ/Université Paris-Saclay) for the analysis of past, present and future climates and the study of major environmental issues. Philippe Bousquet, LSCE Director, accompanied by Robert Vautard, Director of the Pierre-Simon Laplace Institute, guided Mr Castex and Ms Vidal through LSCE’s new ICE building, inaugurated in November 2019.
They examined ECHoMICADAS, a compact accelerator mass spectrometer for measuring carbon-14 activities in small solid or gaseous samples. The facility is particularly useful for locating significant events in earth’s history and human evolution in the recent quaternary period. They then visited the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS), a European research facility for monitoring greenhouse gas concentrations.
Michel Ramonet, researcher at the LSCE, shows the ICOS facility to the Prime Minister and Minister for Research. ©Lucie Locqueneux/UPSaclay
The visit ended with a discussion between the Prime Minister, the Minister for Research and some fifteen young researchers on the various measures of the draft law on multi-year research programming (LPPR) and the France Relance recovery plan.
Discussion between the Prime Minister, the Minister for Research and young researchers. ©CEA