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[France] 2008 Eiffel Scholarship Programme for Master and PhD

Objectives of Eiffel programme
Eiffel excellence scholarships are awarded to high-achieving overseas students to whom French centres of higher education would like to offer a place on a Master’s or PhD course. The courses taken by these students in France ultimately target positions of responsibility in the public or private sector, rather than careers in teaching or research.

The French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs gives priority to candidates from emerging countries (starting with Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and new members of the European Union), though the PhD scholarships also address students from industrialized countries.


Applications from students currently studying outside France will be given priority over those from students already studying in France.Areas of study covered by the Eiffel programme
Eiffel grants cover the following subject areas:
Engineering sciences for the Master’s course, and sciences in a broader sense for the PhD course (engineering sciences, exact sciences (mathematics, physics, chemistry) life sciences, nano- and bio-technologies, environment sciences, and information & communication sciences).
Economics and management.
Law and political science.

Academic levels covered by the Eiffel programme
French centres of higher education putting forward candidates for Eiffel scholarships undertake to enrol successful applicants on one of the following types of course:
Master’s course
PhD course co-tutored or co-managed with partner higher education centre in the student’s country of origin

Candidates must not be aged over 30 (in the year of selection) for a Master’s scholarship or over 35 for a PhD scholarship.

Ineligibility factors
Holders of other French government grants (including welfare coverage grants),
Previous applicants for Eiffel grants, even in a different subject,
Applicants not presented by a French centre (i.e. applications by students themselves, or submitted by a non-French centre)
Duplicate applications, i.e. students proposed by more than one French centre.

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Applications must be submitted with all the supporting documents listed on page 5 of the application form, and bear the official seal of the French higher education centre plus the signature of the official head of the centre (university dean, school director, etc.), formally certifying the statement of the centre’s international outreach policy. The quality charter must also be initialled separately to mark formal acceptance.

Application procedure
Applications for Eiffel grants are submitted by French higher education centres from a shortlist of outstanding students they would like to enrol on their courses. Applications are not accepted from students themselves, or from non-French centres.

Centres submit applications on behalf of candidate students consistent with programme objectives, in accordance with instructions and guidelines issued by French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Selection procedure
Selection is performed by a commission made up of three specialist committees (one for each of the three subject areas covered by the programme). Committee members are not allowed to assess applications submitted by their own centres.

Committee members are not allowed to assess applications submitted by centres with which they have professional links.

Selection is to three criteria:
Academic excellence of applicant, as attested by achievement to date (rated on a scale of 10 and weighted with a coefficient of 3).
International policy of centre submitting application, operations addressing the geographical region in question, calibre of host unit, and suitability with regard to the application (rated on a scale of 5 and weighted to a coefficient of 3).
Cooperation policy of French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, especially as regards the priorities set for different countries under the programme (rated on a scale of 5 and weighted to a coefficient of 1).

The commission assesses applications, rates them to these three criteria, and applies the weighting coefficients to produce a score out of 50. It then sets a pass mark and selects nominees to the following principles, on the basis of the number of grants available:
At least seventy percent of the grants are awarded to the highest-scoring applicants (main list).
The remainder go to higher education centres whose nominees scored above the pass mark but were not selected on the main list.

The commission then draws up and publishes the list of successful applicants.

Notification of results
The list of successful applicants will be published on-line (www.egide.asso.fr/eiffel).

Results will be notified to the heads of the higher education centres concerned.

The commission’s decision is final, and no discussion will be entertained regarding this decision or the reasons behind it.

Schedule
The schedule for the 2008 Eiffel programme is as follows:
Application forms available online: September 2007
Applications to be submitted by 11 January 2008
Results announced in week beginning 24 March 2008

Results are published in March to enable students to give the French offer full consideration along with any other offers they might have; the best students will often have competing proposals (including offers on funding their studies) from other countries.

Duration of Eiffel scholarship
Master’s course: The Eiffel scholarship is awarded for the duration of the course culminating in the qualification specified in the application, provided the student fulfils the academic requirements of each year.

Upon request by the French host centre, Eiffel scholarship allowances for non-French-speaking students may be extended to cover preliminary French language training of up to one year.

The centre submitting the application must clearly state the overall programme duration, including any compulsory practical courses or internships in France or elsewhere.

PhD course: The Eiffel scholarship is awarded for a maximum of ten months, with no additional language training period.

Amount of Eiffel scholarship
The Eiffel programme does not cover tuition fees (except for preparatory course in French, if applicable), though the higher education centres concerned are invited to apply the best possible financial conditions to Eiffel scholarship-holders.

Enrolment fees at state-run higher education centres are waived for students on French government scholarship programmes such as this.

Master’s courses: Eiffel scholarship-holders on Master’s courses receive a monthly allowance of EUR1,181. In addition, the programme meets various expenses including return travel, health insurance and cultural activities. Scholarship-holders might also be eligible for additional accommodation allowance.

PhD courses: Eiffel scholarship-holders on PhD courses receive a monthly allowance of EUR1,400. In addition, the programme meets various expenses including return travel, health insurance and cultural activities. Scholarship-holders might also be eligible for additional accommodation allowance.

French embassy assistance
If they wish, higher education centres may contact French diplomatic services (cooperation and cultural departments) for assistance in identifying potentially suitable applicants.

The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has commissioned Égide with management of the Eiffel programme.

Égide
28 rue de la Grange-aux-Belles, 75010 Paris, France
Phone +33 (0)1 40 40 59 30
Practical information available on Égide website: www.egide.asso.fr/eiffel

Égide will take charge of paying students’ grants, and of answering enquiries from students and higher education centres regarding the Eiffel programme.

E-mail: eiffel[ at ]egide.asso.fr

Visit this link to see call for application (in French)


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[Switzerland] PhD student position in air quality modeling

The Paul Scherrer Institut is a centre for multi-disciplinary research and one of the world’s leading user laboratories. With its 1200 employees it belongs as an autonomous institution to the Swiss ETH domain and concentrates its activities on solid-state research and material sciences, elementary particle and astrophysics, energy and environmental research as well as on biology and medicine.

The Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry (LAC) is engaged in air quality and climate research by field studies, smog chamber experiments and chemical transport models.

We are offering a PhD Student position in the field of Air quality modeling. The chemical composition of particulate matter was recently measured and analyzed in several field campaigns at different locations in unprecedented detail. This provides a unique opportunity to evaluate 3-dimensional photochemical models including emissions, meteorological transport, gasphase and aerosol chemistry.


The challenges are on the one hand to get the boundary layer meteorological processes right on the other hand to get the emissions right. Recent research has shown that one also needs to revisit the assumptions concerning the formation processes leading to secondary organic aerosols.

The project will focus on aerosol formation processes in Switzerland and Europe. An intensive collaboration is planned with another PhD student focusing on meteorology and with a Canadian research group. A competitive Salary will be available.

Your tasks
Use the meteorological models MM5 and/or the Alpine Model (aLMo) in combination with the chemical transport model CAMx in various configurations
Improve the gaseous emissions, e.g. concerning biogenic sesqui-terpene emissions
Improve the primary aerosol emissions (especially from domestic wood burning)
Use and/or develop new schemes to represent the secondary organic aerosol formation in an appropriate manner (2)
Test and evaluate the model versus various available and new data sets
Present the results at workshops, conferences and in peer-reviewed journals

Your profile

You have a master/diploma degree in atmospheric science, meteorology, physics, chemistry or environmental science. Ideally, you already have some experience in meteorological or air quality modeling. Programming and computer skills are crucial. Good communication skills in English are required and in German beneficial.

We are looking forward to your application

Sebnem Andreani and André Prévôt
Paul Scherrer Institut
Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry
CH- 5232 Villigen-PSI
Switzerland

Please send your application to:
sebnem.andreani {a - t } psi.ch


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[USA] Postdoctoral Position in Computer-Aided Diagnosis, University of Chicago

A Postdoctoral Scholar position is available for a highly motivated individual who wants to develop or advance his/her academic career in the field of medical imaging sciences/engineering.Our laboratory in the Department of Radiology in the Biological Sciences Division at The University of Chicago focuses on research on computer-aided diagnosis of lesions in medical images and the development of techniques of pattern recognition, image analysis, and machine learning for computer-aided diagnosis.Our department is one of the leaders in computer-aided diagnosis research, which is at the forefront of research areas in medical imaging.


Applicants should have a Ph.D. in computer science/engineering, biomedical engineering, or a similar discipline.The successful candidate should have substantial experience in 2D and 3D pattern recognition, computer vision, image analysis, and/or machine learning.The successful candidate should also have excellent programming skills in the computer languages (C/C++, Perl, and Matlab), as well as strong problem-solving and excellent collaboration skills.

For more information, see our laboratoryfs home page at http://suzukilab.uchicago.edu/

Application
Interested candidates are encouraged to send their CV and a brief statement of research interests to:

Email: suzuki[ at ]uchicago.edu

Kenji Suzuki, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Radiology, Medical Physics, and Cancer Research Center, Department of Radiology, Division of the Biological Sciences, The University of Chicago.


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2008-2009 IBM Herman Goldstine Memorial Postdoctoral Fellowship

The Mathematical Sciences Department of the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center invites applications for its 2008-2009 Herman Goldstine Memorial Postdoctoral Fellowship for research in mathematical and computer sciences. Areas of active research in the department include: algorithms, data mining, dynamical systems and differential equations, high-performance computing, numerical analysis, optimization, probability theory, statistics, and supply-chain and operations management.

Fellows interact closely with department members but are free pursue their own research.

Candidates must have a Ph.D. after September 2003 or should receive one before the second half of 2008. One fellowship will be awarded with a stipend between $95,000 and $115,000 (depending on area and experience).


Applications must be received between October 15, 2007 and January 5, 2008. Complete details and the application procedure are available at:
http://www.research.ibm.com/math/goldstine.html.

IBM is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer committed to work-place diversity.

Deadline: October 15, 2007-January 5, 2008


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