What is the Plinius Cursus ?
The Plinius cursus is the Ph.D. program of the Institute of Microbiology, Bioenergy and Biotechnology (IM2B). It was created through a real teamwork and is continuously evolving under the impetus of the teaching team and the doctoral students themselves. The objective is to offer all doctoral students a unique training and individualized teaching.
Preparing the new generation to meet today’s challenges
We all face new challenges, both scientific and societal. As scientists, the new generations of doctoral students must be able to respond to many issues:
- Ecological: bioenergy, bioremediation, plant genetic improvement
- Microbiological: development of innovative strategies to fight against the proliferation of microorganisms harmful to health and the environment.
- Biotechnologies: synthetic biology, bio-sourced chemistry.
As enlightened citizens, they must also be able to participate actively in societal debates, particularly in the area of the proliferation of “alternative truths”.
All doctoral students must also be trained during their thesis to succeed in their professional integration, whether it is academic or directed towards the private sector.
To offer an individualized, interdisciplinary, professionalized and open to the world training.
This is why, in close partnership with all the members of the institute and the university, the Plinius Cursus is developing a training program that is internationally oriented and directly linked to research. It covers all disciplines of microbiology, biology of photosynthetic organisms, genomics, structural biology and biotechnologies, both in basic and applied research.
It benefits from the emulation present within this unique institute which brings together a set of research labs and teams dedicated to microbiology (prokaryotic and eukaryotic), photosynthetic organisms, biotechnologies and synthetic biology. It also relies on the formidable network of lecturers-researchers who are involved in 4 masters programs and a chemistry master’s program. The courses offered by the Plinius Cursus are complementary to those of three of AMU’s doctoral schools – Life Sciences and Health (ED62), Chemical Sciences (ED250) and Environmental Sciences (ED251). Thus, by relying on both scientific expertise and the formidable diversity of approaches used by the laboratories that make up the IM2B, the Plinius Cursus offers you a personalized, interdisciplinary, professionalizing doctoral program that is open to the international community.
In addition to the numerous collaborations between teams and laboratories with an impressive number of partners worldwide, the Plinius Cursus has forged privileged links with many universities. Thanks to its geographical location, Marseille has privileged links with universities around the Mediterranean Sea and in Europe. The Plinius Cursus facilitates your collaborations and professional exchanges during your Ph.D. Indeed, the Plinius Cursus and the institute are part of the European university CIVIS which federates 7 universities around AMU (Free University of Brussels, Autonomous University of Madrid, Stockholm, Athens, Bucharest, Tübingen and the Sapienza in Rome). They are also setting up a European master’s in microbiology with the University of Namur (Belgium) and Philipps-Universitat of Marburg in conjunction with the Max Planck in Marburg (Germany) as well as exchanges with the universities of Barcelona and Madrid. And the Plinius Cursus links are not limited to Europe. You will be able to take advantage of student and school exchanges on the themes of microbiology and bioenergy with the University of Madison (Wisconsin – USA) and the links established with the AMU subsidiary in Wuhan, China.
A tailor-made program developed by and for students.
In order to facilitate your Ph.D., the Plinius Cursus offers workshops and practical training that complement those acquired in the thesis laboratory or doctoral schools. It aims to broaden and improve your knowledge and skills as a doctoral student as well as your professional network. The Plinius Cursus offers you a wide range of training courses both at the fundamental and applied level in all disciplines of microbiology, biology of photosynthetic organisms, genomics, structural biology and biotechnologies. Whether you’re headed for an academic career or for the private sector, industry and education, the Plinius Cursus teaching team helps each doctoral student build and refine his or her own professional project.
Discover the Plinius Cursus team
The development of the Ph.D. program of the Plinius Cursus is a true team effort. It evolves under the impetus of the teaching team and the doctoral students themselves.