Wherefore a CNRS alumini association ?

Everyone involved in any way in French scientific research is aware of the key role played by CNRS . A laboratory linked to the CNRS is practically always internationally well-known and recognized. Those who have worked with a CNRS unit are legitimately proud to have contributed directly or indirectly to the advancement of science. When they stop working there, either because they have earned a well-deserved retirement, or because they have moved on to other activities, they leave with a twinge of regret. The CNRS Alumni association was founded to enable them to keep in touch with their Alma Mater.

What does the Association do for its members and what can they do for it ?

The Association provides pleasurable leisure activities. It organizes visits to historic monuments and to museums and trips at home and abroad, including tours designed for grand-parents and their grand-children.

It contributes, too, to the awakening of an interest in science among adolescents through hands-on experimentation and guided tours of labs or museums alongside their normal school curriculum.

We are grateful to all those of our members who organize such events for their dedication, and I would like to invite more of our members to join the teams in charge of these activities.

Our Magazine « Rayonnement du CNRS » has improved in form and content under the leadership of my predecessor, Edmond Lisle, our Honorary President. Thanks to the efficiency of its Editor and Editorial Board, it provides our members with up-to-date files on contemporary scientific issues and news about the Association’s activities at home and abroad.

The Magazine is posted on our website which provides ongoing information on all the Association’s activities and a link to CNRS periodicals in French and English. « Rayonnement du CNRS » would welcome volunteers to assist in expanding its contents and distribution.

Another success achieved during Edmond Lisle’s Presidency was the launching of CNRS Alumni Clubs abroad. The fact that many CNRS research units welcome foreign scientists and doctoral students is a potential source of future contacts and cooperation after those scientists have returned home.

The Charter of our Association requires us to maintain links with all former members of CNRS ; our aim is explicitly to extend this requirement to former members abroad, in order to turn the potential network of foreign scientists trained in France into an active one.

In 2009 the first of these clubs was set up in China, with the assistance of the CNRS office in Beijing. A second club is currently being set up in Brazil, again with the support of the CNRS office in that country. It seems feasible to set up other clubs in Japan, Russia, Germany, Israel and the UK. In each of those countries, significant numbers of former members of CNRS have been identified, many of them holding distinguished appointments in the academic world, in business or in Government, in their respective countries. Our members are kindly requested to help us identify former members of CNRS abroad and to suggest new ways of cooperating with them, based on their own experience of international collaboration.

The friendliness of the welcome which our foreign visitors receive during their stay in France decisively influences their desire to maintain links with our country when they have returned home. The Kastler Foundation, with which our Association has the closest connection, has the statutary responsibility of assisting foreign visiting scientists in all the administrative steps required upon their arrival in France and does so to everyone’s satisfaction. However, during their stay, foreign visitors may experience a feeling of loneliness, especially during holiday periods. To be welcomed in a French home at such times would mean a lot for those visiting scholars. We suggest that our members, through our regional representative, contact the local CNRS Delegate in order to identify visiting scientists from a country in which those members are interested, so as to invite them to their homes. This would be a useful and rewarding way of promoting the CNRS.

Generally speaking, the activities of our Association at the local level are essential and I invite all our members to contact their local representative and convey to him or her their wishes and suggestions.

I would like to extend the range of our activities and establish links with CNRS Alumni who are pursuing their careers in industry and the private sector. Our association could thereby assist in promoting the development of joint research between the public and private sectors, to the advantage of all concerned. Here too, all suggestions are welcome.

Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Claudius Martray, our General Secretary, and Georges Ricci, our Treasurer and legal adviser, who have both dedicated themselves whole-heartedly to the Association and will continue to assist and and advise us.


Michel PETIT
President, CNRS Alumni Association