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The biodiversity crisis is not only destroying nature: it also threatens our societies, our well-being, and our survival. Based on scientific assessments and findings from IPBES, this Francqui Chair explores our toxic relationship with nature, the global failure to protect it, and the multiple values of living organisms. We will examine ways to recognize these values, repair our relationship, and bring about the transformative change that is needed.Keen to put the protection of ecosystems back at the center of public debate, UNamur is organizing a second Francqui Chair in Law this academic year with Professor Delphine Misonne on a related theme: "Need for the environment, need for law?"Free event upon registration.  More information and full program I'm signing up

The biodiversity crisis is not only destroying nature: it also threatens our societies, our well-being, and our survival. Based on scientific assessments and findings from IPBES, this Francqui Chair explores our toxic relationship with nature, the global failure to protect it, and the multiple values of living organisms. We will examine ways to recognize these values, repair our relationship, and bring about the transformative change that is needed.Keen to put the protection of ecosystems back at the center of public debate, UNamur is organizing a second Francqui Chair in Law this academic year with Professor Delphine Misonne on a related theme: "Need for the environment, need for law?"Free event upon registration.  More information and full program I'm signing up

The biodiversity crisis is not only destroying nature: it also threatens our societies, our well-being, and our survival. Based on scientific assessments and findings from IPBES, this Francqui Chair explores our toxic relationship with nature, the global failure to protect it, and the multiple values of living organisms. We will examine ways to recognize these values, repair our relationship, and bring about the transformative change that is needed.Keen to put the protection of ecosystems back at the center of public debate, UNamur is organizing a second Francqui Chair in Law this academic year with Professor Delphine Misonne on a related theme: "Need for the environment, need for law?"Free event upon registration.  More information and full program I'm signing up

In early September, the University of Namur hosted the first Main-Group Elements Reactivity Conference (MG-ERC). Over 100 researchers from 12 countries and 32 institutions gathered around Professor Guillaume Berionni. An event hailed as "one of the best chemistry conferences" by its prestigious guests.

SummaryAt a time when a stream of research was striving to reformulate quantum mechanics by abolishing operators and substituting functions, Wigner and Szilard proposed in 1932 a quasi-probability distribution defined on phase space thanks to wave functions. They did not explain its genesis.The first part of our thesis proposes a genesis of this quasi-distribution, based on the natural conditions it must fulfill. It briefly examines a pathology it suffers from: exhibiting negative values in certain subdomains of the phase space (hence the "quasi"), a pathology that does no harm to the calculation of mean values. She then shows how, if we take spin into account, with wave functions giving way to spinners, we are led, thanks to the calculation of mean values of observables, to a generalization of this quasi-distribution in the form of a Hermitian matrix. This approach is extended to the Wigner cross transform, i.e. to weak values.An important theorem, which has been the subject of a publication, is proved in the second part of our thesis. Using harmonic analysis, this result expresses weak values in terms of an integral over a Lie group acting on the Hilbert space under consideration. We give two particular examples: SU(2) and SO(3). The case of a quotient group is briefly discussed.In a third section, we recall the well-known link between Clifford algebras and two important equations of quantum physics: the Klein-Gordon and Dirac equations, and its generalization to Riemannian spacetimes.Finally, in a fourth section we introduce spin groups, and use the spin group Spin(3,2) in the context of the Wigner cross transform discussed in the first section.JuryProf. André FÜZFA (UNamur), PresidentProf. Yves CAUDANO (UNamur), SecretaryDr. Thomas DURT (Institut Fresnel and Ecole Centrale Marseille, Marseille, France)Prof. Romain MURENZI (Worcester Polytecnic Institute)Prof. Dominique LAMBERT (UNamur)Prof. Bertrand HESPEL (UNamur)Prof. André HARDY (UNamur)

How does a river work? How do river overflows occur? What can be done to protect our territories from these risks? At UNamur, geography students followed an innovative teaching activity, using a 3D augmented reality sandbox, to learn about this issue. What are the aims of this tool? Simulate and analyze natural phenomena. A unique and immersive experience to better understand environmental dynamics and climate risks, carried out in collaboration with the non-profit organization Contrat de Rivière Ourthe.

In late November 2024, UNamur hosted the 23rd BENEVOL Congress, an annual research seminar that provides an opportunity for international researchers to meet and discuss new ideas, important issues and cutting-edge research in the field of software engineering, maintenance and evolution.

Located in the Indian Ocean, Madagascar is an island with a rich natural heritage and multiple cultural influences. For over 15 years, researchers from the University of Namur have been working with a number of Madagascan universities and institutes on a variety of themes, including environmental preservation, water management and institutional capacity building. Focus on some of these projects.

Anthony Simonofski and Olivier Sartenaer, have been elected to join the prestigious Collégium de l'Académie royale de Belgique. Bringing together young researchers (under 40) from Wallonia-Brussels who have particularly distinguished themselves in their careers, the Collégium's objectives include promoting the arts and research.

In October 2024, Guillaume Berionni, a researcher in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Namur, received the Royal Society of Chemistry's (RSC) triennial prize from its President, Professor Anne-Sophie Duwez. A fine reward for his research team in organometallic reactivity and catalysis (RCO), but also for our institution and its Department of Chemistry.

Since September 2023, Marc Hennequart, Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at UNamur, has been conducting groundbreaking research into pancreatic cancer. His team, based at the Faculty of Medicine and the Institut Narilis, studies the early stages of oncogenesis (the process of transforming a normal cell into a cancerous one) to better understand the metabolic changes behind this particularly aggressive cancer.

This is a fine reward for Professor André Füzfa, astrophysicist in the Department of Mathematics and head of the Astronomical Observatory at UNamur. On November 21, he received the "Coup de Coeur" award from the Trophées de Matière Grise, RTBF's popular science program 2024. These trophies aim to reward the country's scientists, who mobilize to disseminate their knowledge and insights to the general public.