PARTNERSHIP WITH FRENCH UNIVERSITY RENEWED

Officials from Old Dominion and Blaise Pascal University in the Auvergne region of southern France recently signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at renewing and strengthening the institutional linkage between the two schools, which was started in 1997.

Charles Hyde-Wright, associate professor of physics, is the lead faculty member in the partnership, which has been a vehicle for faculty exchange and which has brought talented French graduate student researchers to Old Dominion for work on faculty projects at the Jefferson Lab in Newport News.

"We have a close research collaboration at Jefferson Lab to investigate the wave nature of the atomic nucleus," Hyde-Wright said. "This agreement will facilitate the exchange of students and faculty between Old Dominion University and Blaise Pascal University."

The agreement calls for cooperation in the areas of:
- joint research activities;
- exchange of faculty members for research, lectures and discussions; and
- exchange of graduate and undergraduate students for study and research.

Financial arrangements will depend on the availability of funds, and most of the ongoing and planned activities at Old Dominion will be supported by external funding, including both faculty and student exchanges. Under the previous agreement, two Old Dominion faculty and three graduate students received support from the Particle Physics Laboratory at Blaise Pascal University for research visits to France.

Also under the agreement, which is to be in effect for three years, the host institution will provide tuition support to graduate and undergraduate students conducting research at their respective schools.