The Welcome Day was held on September 1, 2026 in Clermont-Ferrand 🇫🇷
September brings important news for IMAPP: a new academic year begins and a new group of students is ready to begin the journey of the master’s degree program.
The 39 students – some connected remotely – involved in this sixth intake 2026/2028 (the fourth since the master’s degree was recognized as Erasmus Mundus Joint Master) were welcomed at Amphithéâtre 9009 of the École Universitaire de Physique et d’Ingénierie of University Clermont Auvergne on the morning of September 1st by the two Degree Programme Directors Prof. Stephane Monteil (from University Clermont Auvergne) and Prof. Angelo Carbone (from Department of Physics and Astronomy “Augusto Righi” of the University of Bologna), together with Dr. Andrea Knue, Programme Coordinator from Technische Universität Dortmund.
Along with them, some of the French staff professors who illustrated the content of their respective courses: Prof. Olivier Deschamps, Prof. Louie Corpe, Prof. Jean Orloff and Dr. Andreas Goudelis. Pio Francesco Varrella – a former IMAPP student and now a PhD student at Laboratoire de Physique de Clermont Auvergne – shared his experience with the master’s degree with new students.
The focus of this first semester is Statistics and Machine learning, which will develop through six modules, which are themselves divided internally into two or more courses:
The students come from 21 different countries: Bangladesh, Egypt, France, Germany, India, Italy, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Pakistan, Philippines, Spain, Sri Lanka, Syria, Turkey, with five new entries Croatia, Greece, Palestine, Sierra Leone, Sudan.
Among these, 24 students (11 non-EU, 13 from EU) obtained scholarships offered by the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master program funded by the European Union. The remaining 15 students were admitted with self-funding.
The gender composition for this intake is 38% female, 62% male.
With this new intake, the students who have participated in our master’s program so far since the first edition in 2021 reach the number of 148 (32% female), for a total of 39 countries of origin involved.
Students will remain in Clermont-Ferrand until the end of January 2027, concluding the semester with the exams required by the master programm. After that they will move to Cargèse (Corsica) for the twelfth edition of the BCD School, before leaving for Germany for the second semester at TU Dortmund.
As with their colleagues from the previous intake, this first semester includes the possibility for non-French students to study – or improve – their knowledge of the French language: Prof. Rosa-Ana Gelbon and Prof. Karine Rufin from Centre FLEURA, will offer French lessons to students, involving them in cultural activities and events linked to the city and territory of Clermont Ferrand.
More about the courses of the semester 👉 https://imapp.eu/programme/courses/
Discover the first semester with this introduction video 👉 https://youtu.be/fpw74LfrDq4