inauguration

[julieP]

Hi everybody


As johan said I think it is a good idea to use this forum to discuss because my mail box will be ovarcharged. So thanks for it!!

Concerning our parrain de promo I always agree with Prof Philipsen but if you have other proposition I can change my mind..
i think it will be great to suggest several people and after to make a vote.

So thanks for your proposition

See U
jul

[johannes]

Philippsen would be ok for me. He is going to stay until the end of April 2009, most probably a couple of months longer. Just to let you know!

[sofquipeut]

I know that you want Philipsen in order to have some chocolates during the ceremony!
I think I will prefer someone outside from the ESBS... But I have no proposition yet. Karim's idea seems great.

[cora]

Do you think we can still pick Prof. Philippsen even if he is not yet leaving?

[majzoub]

phillipsen's idea is not bad....he's a good guy...i worked in his lab....but i donno we kind of steal him from the promo2009, and we will remind him that he is leaving soon.....remember how sad he was in the alumni day?.....I mean if there are more people that would prefer phillispsen I am all in for it.....but consider having somebody from outside the esbs as well....I think it's good for the school...and for the invitation there will be no problem....

tchuss and i am happy that we are seeing each other soon! even better with the parents! hehehehe

peace

[Laurent]

I think that Philippsen would be great. We know and appreciate him (I guess it is true for most of us) and he would be probably honored. And it doesn't matter if promo 2009 are frustrated :-)

[pedro]

I personally really estimate Philippsen and I would choose him. I prefer to have someone I know, who is a great scientist and who has a real commitment to our school and to us students. In my opinion nobody fits better than him! The arguments that we are stealing him from the promo2009 or that he is not leaving now are for me not really relevant...

[Julian]

True, Pedro! I think we all value Peter Philippsen and he would certainly be a good choice. He also has (obviously) a direct connection to the ESBS, if it is of any importance to this matter.

On the other hand, if we do not choose to imitate promo 2007 (retirement of Prof. Beck), we could try to get a nobel laureate as our godfather and be the second promotion after promo 1994 (Werner Arber) having that.

Watson is still alive, isn't he? Let's invite him. Or McKinnon (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2003/)? I could ask Sulston at the Institute next door (http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/2002/)...


Please propose other people, too, and we'll vote the Top 3 and try to get them to our last day at the ESBS.

[Simon]

I just wanted to add a few thoughts...
I've met Bertrand Jordan and can say that he is a really nice and interesting person and he would be an original choice for our parrain. As Karim has already mentioned he is quite well known in our field in France for his scientific and literary accomplishments. He is also familiar with our school and some of its professors.
As for Philippsen, he's also a great choice but to make sure we aren't sending him off before he even leaves, we should give him the choice between promo 2008 and 2009 as he will undoubtedly be parrain for one of the promos...
And finally, concerning the Nobel Laureates, do you think we have the funds to invite them to France?

[Julian]

I think we have € 3000.- for our parrain, if I remember correctly. We would need to pay a plane ticket, a nice hotel and a dinner for him and his wife. C'est faisable, n'est-ce pas? Of course we cannot pay him for a speech.

Another suggestion: Tim Hunt. He discovered cycline and did a lot for the understanding of the cell cycle. He got the Nobel prize in medicine in 2001 for his work on mitosis. I met him yesterday and he is extremely nice and patient. I'm sure he would do it (if I can contact him.... unfortunately, I forgot to ask him when we took that picture). Did you know that he made an important protein discovery because he forgot to stop the centrifuge, went for lunch and so his samples were spun down much longer? This is what he told...

[cora]

I would rather take the 3000€ (if we really have that somewhere) and spend it on the dinner and party than flying in some guy... even if it might be impressive to have a famous person as parrain - I don't care. I am totally fine with Prof. Philippsen (if he is ok with us instead of promo 2009, of course...)!

[Nanny_Nasenbaer]

I would prefer to have someone we all know....I think it's a strange idea to have someone I never met before and who has nothing to do with the ESBS. In addition I think if we chose a famous person it will be always a problem to meet him again for future alumni reunions....

[coline]

I really like Pr Philipsen but as Simon said, chosing him as a parrain would be maybe a way of saying goodbye a little bit too early if he only leaves next year... Karim's idea of choosing Bertrand Jordan is really good, but im not too sure about the Nobel prizes...Even if they would accept, I think it would be weird to have those guys coming to a school they probably never heard of! Choosing Mr Jordan, who has a good scientific background as well as a good contact with students seems to me a better idea

[Julian]

Well, the parrain will be a stranger anyway unless we take Philippsen, so this is no good argument.

I'm going to ask Bettina if it would be an affront to choose Philippsen. I'll also email Lydie for information about the budget.

[cora]

Good call! Let's wait for those results before we decide...

[Julian]

Here is the response from Lydie:

Bonjour Jaros,

Effectivement c'est une fausse rumeur, je viens de demander la confirmation à M. Kedinger et il m’a affirmé que la contribution de l'ESBS ne pourra pas dépasser
700 €.
Merci de bien vouloir me tenir au courant pour le Nom du parrain de la promotion 2008.
Bonne continuation, Lydie.

Le 5 juin 08, à 18:57, Julian Jaros (ESBS) a écrit :
Chère Lydie,

Notre promo est en train de planifier la remise des diplômes. Pour inviter un chercheur qui va être le parrain de notre promo, nous avons un certain budget. Combien d'euro c'est? Le bruit court qu'on a € 5000.- pour payer l'avion, l'hébergement, taxi et tout cela. Est-ce vrai?
Merci pour votre réponse.

Très cordialement,
Julian

Why does she always address me as "Jaros" when I write an email, but gets my name right when I'm visiting her in the office? Strange thing... "Bonjour Jaros"... Funny!
Well, we have €700.- which would still be enough to get someone from England, but not the States though. Maybe the University of Basel is also paying something? And yes, I was aiming high with the €5000.- :p





Here is Bettinas answer:

Lieber Julian

[...]
Zum Thema Pensionierung: Eigentlich darf ich dazu gar nicht so viel sagen, aber unter uns: [...] Ich glaube, es fällt Peter nicht leicht, das alles aufzugeben. Müsst ihr denn jetzt schon entscheiden, wen ihr als Götti haben wollt? Vielleicht könnt ihr ihn ja Ende Jahr erst fragen, oder ist das zu spät? Das Thema "Pensionierung" ist auf jeden Fall ein heikles zur Zeit ... Es ist aber sehr rücksichtsvoll von dir, dass du nachfragst. :-) Danke, dass du diskret mit dieser Info umgehst.
[...]

Liebe Grüsse,
Bettina

-----Original Message-----
From: J. Jaros [mailto:jj316@hermes.cam.ac.uk]

Liebe Bettina,

[...]
Zudem hätte ich eine Frage bezüglich einer möglicherweise heiklen Angelegenheit:
Unsere Promo berät zur Zeit, wen wir als Namensgeber und "Götti" anfragen sollen. Peter ist ein vielgenannter und beliebter Kandidat, und weil er bald in Pension gehen wird (?), wäre es ein Zeichen der Anerkennung, ihn zu wählen. Nun gibt es verschiedene Meinungen über den Zeitpunkt der Pensionierung. Einige Stimmen sagen, er wird im Jahre 2009 in Rente gehen, ist dies wahr? Falls ja, ist es ungeschickt, ihn für eine Patenschaft unseres Jahrgangs zum "Abschied" anzufragen, ein Jahr im Voraus sozusagen? Was ist deine Meinung hierzu?

Liebe Grüsse,
Julian

Für alle Nichtschweizer: Götti = Pate. Es sieht aus, als würde Herr Philippsen sicher bis 2009 aktiv bleiben. Er tritt also seinen Posten definitiv nicht dieses Jahr ab, und ihn nun trotzdem anzufragen, finde ich unangebracht. Ob wir warten können bis zum Ende des Schuljahres? Wohl kaum, denn es wäre dann bei einer negativen Antwort sehr schwierig, eine Alternative zu finden, so 10 Tage vor der Diplomverleihung. Und irgendjemanden sonst von der ESBS sehe ich persönlich _überhaupt_ nicht als Pate. Ich weiss nicht, ob ich überhaupt diese Email hier veröffentlichen sollte. Diskretos, merci!


It looks like Philippsen is not in the mood to deal with those kind of questions right now. Apparently, he is having a hard time to realize and accept that his ESBS-time will be over pretty soon (I feel sorry for him). The ESBS was a big part of his life in the past 20 years or so, and that's why it is a very emotional time for him. I think it's inappropriate to ask Prof. Philippsen to be our parrain, at least for now. Bettina suggests to ask him at the very end of this semester, which may be critical if we get a negative response. So, what to do? I have to emphasize that I'd like to have Philippsen as a parrain, even if this means that there will be a lot of tears during and after his speech... But it would certainly be very nice.


My suggestion: we should try to get Philippsen, a parrain with lots of "emotional value". This is what counts. It will be delicate though. If that does not work out, I'd rather go for someone very famous than e.g. someone not as well know. Both will be strangers to us and the ESBS, so the only difference would be fame. So my ranking is:

1. Philippsen
2. famous guy with not much relation to us/ESBS
3. not so famous guy with not much relation to us/ESBS
4. M. Poinsignon (he's a nice guy)
5. M. Serge Mykita (he's part of our life; every day several emails!)

We would "only" have the problem to ask Philippsen very late and have a famous guy be ready to substitute in the case of a negative answer. Sounds good, doesn't it? Ok, I'm done with talking, someone else's turn now.

[majzoub]

Good interaction going on guys! I really like Juli's idea about poisignon or serge mykita! we can get drunk with the 700 dollars left because it wont cost us a lot to buy Mykita a tram ticket from strasbourg to illkirch! and it will be a good thing because we will see him for the first time in our life after hearing so much from him! hahahahah

No , back to the serious things...well phillipsen semmed a really good idea guys... this guy is great....but bettina's mail confirmed my concerns about philllipsen realizing that he is leaving the institution he was part of creating and managing for so long...I'd like to say to pedro as well that it's not a question of relevance of arguments, but a validity and validity leaves a probability that the argument is to a certain extent true or not, relevance mean 100% black or white.....that's what turned out to be finally about phillipsen.....

anyway, if you look at all the promos before most of them had notorious scientists.....and choosing one everybody knows, who is scientifically famous worldwide and related to the ESBS is very difficult....A nobel prize is a good idea too....
but i would like to emphasize that Jordan would be glad to come if I talk to him about that....so no problem on this matter... Finally it's our choice that matters guys.....here's another link on the guy : http://brightsfrance.free.fr/bertrand.jordan.htm
http://brightsfrance.free.fr/bertrand.jordan.htm


keep on the good brainstorming!

a bientot tout le monde!

[cora]

I'd like to say to pedro as well that it's not a question of relevance of arguments, but a validity and validity leaves a probability that the argument is to a certain extent true or not, relevance mean 100% black or white.....that's what turned out to be finally about phillipsen.....

Sorry but I did not get that part Would you mind explaining that again, please?

Other than that I think I am still fine with Prof. Philippsen. We all like him and he seems to like us. It is supposed to be an honor and not necessarily a reminder that he has to leave but a reminder that he did a great job and the students are thankful!!! What about that explanation

[andre]

Here what I think of the parrain de promotion.

Giving a name to our promo is very much like giving a name to a building. The building itself (we students) will not have a direct benefit from it.

The main purpose is to honour somebody’s work. Prof. Philippsen and Prof. Posten truly deserve to be honoured by us; there is no question about it. They deserve it especially because their hard work nourished the ESBS from which we benefit.

There is a second role of giving a name to a building. It is to promote the institute that lives in it. For this purpose a Nobel Prize winner seems to be perfect. But will the ESBS get through this really the kind of attention it currently needs? It seems to me that our school is currently falling apart. I think honouring somebody who already won the Nobel Prize and has nothing to do with our school (apart from being a scientist) might be fun but is a waste.

So for me the perfect parrain schould fulfil both aspects: truly deserve to be honoured by us and promote our school.
Why it has to be scientist in life science? I think we should go back to the very roots of the ESBS, the EUCOR and honour one of the founders or somebody that is really hard working for it. I currently try to figure out who this might be. Maybe Thomas Keller, I don’t know. It would be great, if somebody would help me with that.
In case EUCOR is not interested in keeping the ESBS alive, because it found a more flexible way to allow the exchange between the upper Rhine universities this would be sad; but than the ESBS has to face it and go new ways. I find the effort to bring these universities and countries together is still worth being honoured by us and could draw attention to our school.
What do you think?

[Sabine R]

Hi everybody!

I think it would really be fine to take Philppson as our parrain! We spent a nice time with him and I think he would be honoured if we choose him.

[Stefan]

it seems strange to me to see serious ideas to invite nobel price laureates to a graduation ceremony of a school that they don't have ANY relation to. besides, as far as I know it is not even true that "traditionally" the parrain is some external guy who is not teacher at ESBS. ALL parrains in the first years after the foundation of ESBS where directly linked to our school, and most other parrains were at least from ULP or associates. last year beck, before that boulanger... I am definitely against inviting somebody from outside ESBS since I don't see the point in spending money on that. please think about the following questions: Would you feel better if our promo was named after a famous scientist? and if yes: why would you feel better? that name will not help you getting a job. on the other hand I am sure that philippsen and even posten (or anybody else from ESBS) would be pleased and maybe even honored to be the parrain for a promo. I really think we should choose somebody who is associated to our school!

[johannes]

Hey,

what about voting soon?
We heard a lot of opinions, and a couple of propositions. Especially if we decided to want a famous person or even a nobelprizer winner who can then tell us storys about the right of aborting unborn children who are predisposed to becoming gay or give us lessons about possible mechanisms of DNA-base pair changes that lead to mutations, we would have to ask them asap.

What about setting up a deadline for the end of the week?

[majzoub]

vive la democracie! Let's vote!

[pedro]

voting is a good idea, but we have to make sure that everybody is participating. I'm still missing 4 people in the forum (Marie, Melissa, Florian and Anastasiya - if I'm right). johan, could you talk to Melissa and Anastasiya? and maybe JulieP to Marie and Florian? thanks...
karim, an argument can be valid, but still lacks relevance depending on a person's point of view. the that case the relevance of arguments is more subjective (I like black) than objective (100% black or white) and can be used as a subjective reasoning against an objective argument. Why do we study biotech? We should have become philosophers....

[cora]

Anja is missing, too. I wrote an email to every single person last week telling them about the vote!

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