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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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The partnership seeks to strengthen the trans-Atlantic ties between Atlanta and the Southeast throughout the year in a wide range of academic, business, cultural, humanitarian and scientific endeavors.
A centerpiece of the project is the 20th anniversary of a Georgia Tech campus in Metz, the capital of France’s Lorraine region.
As part of the initiative, French authorities and Georgia Tech Lorraine officials are scheduled to sign an official agreement, formally creating the Lafayette Institute, a center for the commercialization of technological research conducted by the partnership on the Metz campus.
In addition, a large number of workshops are to be held both in Metz and Atlanta, ranging from discussions on the business opportunities associated with the development of new drugs and medical devices including presentations by scientists from institutions such as the Pasteur Institute in France, Emory University and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as Georgia Tech.
Workshops also are scheduled concerning France’s experience with high-speed trains and electric cars, with water management, with the recycling of plastic, electric and electronic equipment and with multimodal logistics. Georgia's Quick Start workforce training program is to be featured as are investment opportunities in France.
On the cultural side, there is to be an exhibition featuring a multitude of practical and artistic uses of newly developed textiles. An exhibition of photographs showing pedestrians in Paris from1890 to 2006 also is to be mounted.
Other cultural programs are to feature dance, Paris’ future urban design initiatives, puppetry arts, films and gastronomy.
A presentation about a new partnership between the Carter Center and the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs to adapt their Ethiopia Public Health Training Initiative into francophone countries despite the language barriers is also scheduled.
For more information, call Claire Collobert, press attaché at the French Consulate in Atlanta at (404) 495-1682 or send an email to Claire.collobert@diplomatie.gouv.fr