Chemical compounds or molecules are first of all matter, that was born from the Big bang energy, with the help of the Higgs boson, and successive huge compressions and temperature increases, which led to fill the Mendeleiev stall over billion years. Life kept up the job, thanks to DNA molecules made of the elemental bricks H O C N ; despite several tremendous extinctions, Life managed to store carbon dioxide, to fuel with oxygen, to come on terra firma, and invent polymers a long time before us.

Nowadays, based on the extensive use of fossil - coal, oil, gas, then nuclear fuels, with an increasing contribution of renewable energy (RE) - hydroelectricity, PV and wind farms, the process industry is able to provide us not only chemicals, such as drugs, fertilizers and dyes, polymers, energy vectors, but also drinkable water, food, cosmetics, glass, batteries... and smartphones.

The career of a new inorganic or organic product - a drug for instance - most of time begins at lab-scale: this is the "synthesis" step. Once its end-of-use property is assessed, Process Engineering (PE) appears on stage to build up and manage plants which will yield it from raw materials and energy and bring it to market, with a minimum production cost and a reduced environmental footprint. More, R&I in Process Engineering is requested to develop techniques as fast as possible for the respect of the environment, circular economy, and RE production, use and storage : VOC capture, polymer recycling, methanisation, hydrogen fuelled cars for instance.  

Expected knowledge : be able to make the inventory of the data required for the design of a unit operation, set up its equation of performance, and calculate its efficiency.

Course Language: English or French, on demand

Chemical compounds or molecules are first of all matter, that was born from the Big bang energy, with the help of the Higgs boson, and successive huge compressions and temperature increases, which led to fill the Mendeleiev stall over billion years. Life kept up the job, thanks to DNA molecules made of the elemental bricks H O C N ; despite several tremendous extinctions, Life managed to store carbon dioxide, to fuel with oxygen, to come on terra firma, and invent polymers a long time before us.

Nowadays, based on the extensive use of fossil - coal, oil, gas, then nuclear fuels, with an increasing contribution of renewable energy (RE) - hydroelectricity, PV and wind farms, the process industry is able to provide us not only chemicals, such as drugs, fertilizers and dyes, polymers, energy vectors, but also drinkable water, food, cosmetics, glass, batteries... and smartphones.

The career of a new inorganic or organic product - a drug for instance - most of time begins at lab-scale: this is the "synthesis" step. Once its end-of-use property is assessed, Process Engineering (PE) appears on stage to build up and manage plants which will yield it from raw materials and energy and bring it to market, with a minimum production cost and a reduced environmental footprint. More, R&I in Process Engineering is requested to develop techniques as fast as possible for the respect of the environment, circular economy, and RE production, use and storage : VOC capture, polymer recycling, methanisation, hydrogen fuelled cars for instance.  

Expected knowledge : be able to make the inventory of the data required for the design of a unit operation, set up its equation of performance, and calculate its efficiency.

Course Language: English or French, on demand

Course description:

Molecular biogeochemistry explores the interplay between the molecular constituents of living organisms and the biogeochemical processes occurring in the environment. This class will provide an overview of the essential concepts in biogeochemistry with an emphasis of processes occurring at the molecular level.  In addition, it will cover how natural and anthropogenic activities impact the molecular transformations of elements like carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur in various environmental domains, such as soil, water, and air, integrating principles from biology, chemistry, and geology to unravel the intricate connections between the molecular biology of organisms and the broader biogeochemical cycles in Earth's ecosystems. We will examine, by delving into scientific literature found in peer-reviewed journals, the molecular aspects of production and degradation of natural organic matter in the biogeosphere, and the linkage of biological molecules with corresponding molecular constituents (chemofossils or biomarkers) that are extracted from sedimentary archives for paleo-reconstructions.

Course goals:

Apart from acquiring the basics of molecular and analytical biogeochemistry, this course aims to achieve the following objectives:

• Develop the ability to critically analyze scientific literature
• Engage in discussions with peers, lead by a subject matter expert, on scientific papers and their impacts
• Cultivate research and presentation skills with classmates and receive direct feedback

Texts and readings:

Reading assignments:

Class 2 (Feb. 28^th) – Ward et al., 2017.  Where carbon goes when water flows: carbon cycling across the aquatic continuum. Frontiers in Marine Science. 4:7. doi: 10.3389/fmars.2017.00007

Class 4 (March. 4^th) – Brown et al., 2014. Source identification of the Antarctic sea ice proxy IP25. Nature. Communications. doi: 10.1038/ncomms5197

Class 6 (March. 11^th) – Solomon et al., 2016. Emergence of healing in the Antarctic ozone layer. Science. 353(6296): 269-274

Class 6 (March. 11^th) - Bergauer et al., 2018. Organic Matter Processing by Microbial Communities throughout the Atlantic Water Column as Revealed by Metaproteomics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115 (3) E400-E408.  Particular attention will be paid to the material and method section concerning the proteomic study (see supplementary data). This work will be discuss in small groups in class.

Class 8 (March. 13th^th) – Rabalais et al., 2019. Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia: past, present and future. Limnology and Oceanography Bulletin. 

Paper discussions:

There are 4 sessions of 45 minutes dedicated to reading peer-reviewed papers, each student will be paired (4 groups of 2 students) and assigned a discussion to lead with a classmate based on the paper to read. Each pair will create powerpoint presentation slides and present the paper to the entire class. I will virtually meet with each group a week prior to their scheduled class leadership to address any queries

Participation:

Students are expected to arrive at class ready to engage in discussions about the assigned readings for the day. Full participation points are awarded for both attendance and active involvement in the day's discussion, which may include responding to polls, making verbal comments, contributing to the chat, and more. Mere attendance without active participation is insufficient for earning full credit. My goal, is that you will get out of the class what you put into it.

Web Programming, (CSC_1S004) introduces the languages, tools, and techniques specific to developing web-based applications. Students will develop a solid understanding of the intricacies of contemporary, dynamic website development, and an insight into the internal workings of the web itself. This is a hands-on practical course that provides students with valuable practice developing their own web-based applications.

Topics

• HTML5, CSS3
• JavaScript (front end)
• Introduction to server side programming: PHP, JS (nodeJS), DB

General organization

The class will mainly consist of practical computer lab classes A small project will be conducted where students will develop their own website (client side only) following the current good practices.

Initiation to data structures, algorithmics and algorithm analysis (lecture hall).
Advanced programming in Java (tutorial groups).

It is also an opportunity to perfect Java skills. The tutorials explore in depth some of the material presented in the lecture hall.

Evaluation: Continuous assessment (pale machine or homework), an in-class exam (3h).