Organ on chip (OoC) is a remarkable example of the convergence of biology and microengineering. OoC has a great potential in revolutionizing the current existing in-vitro approach in drug discovery and development, resulting in a reduction in the needs of animal experiment and accelerate the research and development process for future precision and personalised medicine. However, the complexity of the system is a hurdle in the transfer of OoC system from laboratory to large scale manufacturing and commercial application. The miniaturisation and integration of sensing and actuation components is an important aspect to be addressed to ensure manufacturability of the system. Moreover, a closed loop control system is required to create a smart OoC system that can operate dynamically to process the information and make decisions in a predictive or adaptive manner. The objective of this proposed research project is to develop a smart OoC system by utilising multimode Lamb waves for sensing, actuation, and control, integrated within a microfluidic system. The action will combine the researcher expertise and experience in higher order multimode Lamb wave, microelectromechanical system (MEMS) and smart system integration, with the supervisors and the host institute experiences in acoustic wave sensor and the integration with microfluidics for biological application. Furthermore, the action will be complemented by a secondment in a non-academic partner that is intended for translational research to bring the technological solution into medical practice. The successful result of this action will contribute to the development of cost effective, automated smart OoC system that is suitable for large scale manufacturing to bridge the gap between laboratory and commercial application for drug discovery and future personalised medicine

Black holes are among the most fascinating objects of the Universe. They are today at the core of our understanding of gravitation. They provide essential hints towards a theory of quantum gravity. They constitute the main emission source of gravitational waves, which will play a central role in future astrophysics. Black holes are also central in mathematical relativity, and the proof of their stability is still today a challenging problem. In the last decades, several analogies between gravity and fluid mechanics have been developed. This interdisciplinary approach has led to many innovative methods and successful results, which have deepened our understanding of black holes, fluids or superfluids. More recently, such an analogy was used by various experimental groups, which were able to successfully reproduce several key effects of black hole physics using fluid systems. The aim of this project is to develop the mathematical tools to open a new avenue in this interdisciplinary field: the understanding of nonlinear dynamics. In other words, how waves are affected by a background flow or spacetime, and subsequently modify their dynamics. It will focus on three research directions: the analogue of the Hawking effect, superradiant instabilities, and resonances. This project will bring an experienced researcher in analogue models in a strong mathematical physics group, within the Institute of Mathematics of Burgundy (IMB). The objective is to exploit modern mathematics to develop new tools for the joint analysis of black holes and fluids. It will rely on the one hand on mathematical methods of integrable models, and spectral theory of non self-adjoint operators, two fields in which the host group has a traditionally strong expertise, and on the other hand on the knowledge in General Relativity and analogue models of the experienced researcher.

The proposed research program entitled NWACOMPLEX aims at pioneering studies of nonlinear wave processes in optics and hydrodynamics implementing by young talented theoretical researcher Dr. A Gelash in exceptional collaboration with top-level experimental teams of the EU Host Université de Bourgogne and partners organizations. The transfer of the Fellow knowledge to experimental teams will make his theoretical and numerical developments widely used in practice. The project will strongly enhance the expertise and professionalism of the Dr. Gelash by high-quality trainings, new contacts and collaborations leading to a cascading effect on his career development. The Fellow being experienced inverse scattering transform technique, physics of nonlinear coherent structures and various computational methods proposes novel theoretical approaches and numerical tools for advanced analysis of modern experiments on generation, detection and nonlinear propagation of light in optical systems and waves on the surface of water. The innovative idea of the project is to reveal the nature of complex nonlinear phenomena using inverse scattering transform theory employing the most recent numerical advancements. The project will benefit the nonlinear science by fundamental studies of novel mechanisms of coherent structures interactions, statistic of nonlinear waves, dense soliton and breather gases. The Fellow will present theoretical predictions on nonlinear wave dynamics and statistic which will be verified by experimental groups of the host and partner organizations. The developed numerical tools will allow to generate various nonlinear light and water surface waves patterns for experiments on their propagation, as well as provide the opportunity to reliably analyse complex experimental data revealing coherent structures and their parameters.

The biological pump refers to the mechanism by which carbon is assimilated by photosynthetic algae in the ocean photic zone and subsequently exported to depth upon death of the organisms. The largest part of this export production is generally remineralized as it travels throughout the water column where it depletes dissolved oxygen concentrations. A fraction of the export production may still reach the sea floor, where it is susceptible to be buried, thus inducing a net removal of CO2 from the ocean-atmosphere system. Therefore, the good appraisal of the response of the biological pump to changing environmental conditions is crucial to reasonably predict climate and ocean oxygenation impacts, both associated with past events and as will result from ongoing anthropogenic emissions. However, the behavior of the ecological system in the face of climatic changes and how it impacts the strength and efficiency of the biological pump remains difficult to predict. To address this, here I propose to investigate the sensitivity of the biological pump in a novel way – using a state-of-the-art ecological model including a representation of marine biogeochemical cycles. I will focus on past periods, which provide a whole evolutionary chronicle to which model outputs can be directly compared. Confrontation of model results with geological records will also allow me to develop a mechanistic understanding of the behavior of the ecological system in response to a wide range of environmental perturbations. The proposed approach constitutes an unrivaled opportunity to increase our understanding of the geological record and what it can tell us of relevance to the future. Lessons learned here, both positive and negative, have the potential to help inform the next generation of marine ecosystem models needed to make improved projections of future global change impacts on ocean ecosystems, and hence engaging a broad range of global change scientists and ultimately, policy makers.