French Ambassador Marion Paradas visits USI

On Monday, 10 March, Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) had the honour of welcoming Her Excellency, Mrs. Marion Paradas, French Ambassador to Switzerland. She was accompanied by Dr. Angéline Blanc-Serre, Attachée de Coopération Scientifique et Universitaire.

The visit began with a rainy campus tour, followed by a presentation of USI and its privileged relationships with France, delivered by the Pro-Rector for Internationalisation, Prof. Fabio Crestani. The discussion highlighted the strong academic and scientific collaborations between USI and French institutions.

As part of the visit, two double-degree programmes were presented: the Master in Digital Fashion Communication with Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (presented by its director, prof. Lorenzo Cantoni), and the Master of Science in Computational Science, offered in collaboration with Université de Sorbonne (represented by the co-director Prof. Ernst-Jan Camiel Wit and Aryan Eftekhari, researcher).

Before the official photo, there was also time for a greeting from Dr Regina Bollhalder Mayer, lecturer of “Francese settoriale” and “Cultura e scrittura in lingua francese” at USI. Since 2015, Dr Bollhalder Mayer has been responsible for USI students’ participation in the "Choix Goncourt de la Suisse", an initiative organised by the Académie Goncourt and the French Embassy in Switzerland.

USI is grateful for this visit and looks forward to further strengthening ties with France in the fields of education and research.