Mr. Jean-Baptiste de Boissière-

Consul Général de France à Chicago

Awarding of the Palmes Académiques to Professors Caitilyn Allen, Donald Waller, and Harvey Jacobs of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

MARCH 27, 2008

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Friends,

We are gathered together this morning to honor three outstanding faculty members of the great University of Wisconsin–Madison:

Caitilyn Allen, Professor of Plant Pathology and Women’s Studies,
Donald Waller, Professor of Botany and Environmental Studies, and
Harvey Jacobs, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning and Environmental Studies

I am happy to thank Professor Jean Claude Davidian, the leader of the French team in Montpellier who traveled specifically for this event and would like also to mention Prof Sophie Thoyer also from ENSAM who was not able to come but would have liked to be here.

I am very pleased to be here today to award the Palmes Académiques to those remarkable faculty because, aside from their own qualities as full professors of this prestigious university, France is happy to recognize their efforts in building and running a program that has supported during the last three years regular exchanges of faculty and masters-level students. Through their roles in the development of the program Environmental Policy, Land Use and Conservation Biology in Franco-American Perspective, Drs. Allen, Waller, and Jacobs have been instrumental in creating strong and effective ties between the University of Wisconsin and the French agronomy school, l’École Nationale Supérieure Agronomique de Montpellier.

The student exchanges between the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Montpellier SupAgro have been well balanced, as 13 US and 12 French Graduate students have joined the FACE program during the last 3 years of the program. Some of the French students not only took the masters-level courses, but also stayed for the whole summer as interns in different labs. At the same time, 10 scholars (7 US and 3 French) have visited both campuses for stays of varying lengths and have contributed to a number of conferences and courses; for example:

• Environmental Economics and Water Management (Clark Miller / Sophie Thoyer - Marie-Laure Navas)
• Periurban Policy and Land Property (Harvey Jacobs / Françoise Jarrige)
• Plant Genetics and Biodiversity (Caitilyn Allen / Dominique This)
• Inter-Transdisciplinary / Sociology (Frances Westley / Fabrice Dreyfus - Jean-Claude Davidian)
• Bioremediation and Environmental Ecology (Donald Waller/ Jean-Claude Davidian and Pierre Berthomieu)

In addition to student exchanges, FACE contributed significantly in developing interactions between Madison and Montpellier, creating new research partnerships, and encouraging PhD graduate students to be involved in the program. Many researcher colleagues associated with Montpellier SupAgro, as well as from different labs in Montpellier, have been involved in welcoming Madison students for their PhD research programs, including CNRS, INRA, IRD, and CIRAD.

Altogether, we can say that the success of the FACE program is reflected by the fact that the two partners have decided to strengthen their relationship by applying, for the coming years, in a new and even more ambitious way to the competitive PUF project.

Overall, the University of Wisconsin–Madison is one of the great American institutions to have developed close ties with France and its institutions of higher education and research, and Prof essor s Allen, Waller, and Jacobs all three of these individuals have been key components in this process.

Caitilyn Allen

Caitilyn Allen received her Bachelor of Science degree in botany from the University of Maine at Orono and her Ph.D. in plant pathology from Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. Between 1986 and 1988 she served as a postdoctoral research associate at CNRS Laboratoire de Génétique Moléculaire des Micro-Organismes in Lyon, France. Returning to the US in 1988, she accepted the position of Assistant Scientist in the Department of Plant Pathology here at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and in 1992 became an Assistant Professor. She rose through the ranks and is now a full professor, teaching plant pathology and women’s studies.

Between 1995 and 2000 Dr. Allen also served as the Founding Faculty Director for the Women In Science and Engineering (WISE) Residential Program, and in 2001-2002 spent a sabbatical year doing research at INRA-Avignon. She was a Leadership Team Member of the UW–Madison NSF ADVANCE Women In Science and Engineering Leadership Institute from 2002 to 2004. Dr. Allen has also participated in research collaborations with colleagues in Guatemala, and organized the African-US Collaborative Research Workshop in Nelspruit, South Africa in 2002. She currently serves as Associate Editor for the journal Molecular Plant Pathology.

Dr. Allen traveled to France several times during the last few years for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between INRA and UW–Madison in Paris and has actively participated in the FACE program with several stays in Montpellier. She is planning to spend her sabbatical at the Montpellier University starting next January.

Donald Waller

Donald Waller received his Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from Amherst College and his Ph.D. in Population Biology from Princeton University. He was also a Bussey Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Gray Herbarium at Harvard University, where he served as first Assistant and then Associate Professor of Botany between 1978 and 1989. In 1986 Dr. Waller was a Visiting Fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama; and in 1988 he was a Humboldt Fellow at the Technical University in then West Berlin. In 1989 he came to UW–Madison as Professor of Botany and Environmental Studies.

Since Dr. Waller came to Madison, he has held a number of other positions, including: member of the Board of Directors of the Natural Areas Association from 1989 to 1991, Associate Editor from 1994 to 1996 and Editor from 1999 to 2003 of the journal EVOLUTION, member of the Board of Directors of the Midwest Invasive Plant Network, and President of the Society for the Study of Evolution in 2006-2007. He also helped one of our interns at the Consulate, Lucas Gillet, in his quest on Intelligent Design in the US.

Additionally, I would like to mention that just a few years ago, Dr. Waller and former French Ambassador to the United States Jean-David Levitte shared an exchange of letters and materials concerning climate history and change in France, as well as opinions on then-current climate change policies. Mr. Levitte mentioned at several occasions the pleasure he took during his visit here.

Harvey Jacobs

Harvey Jacobs received his Bachelors Degree in Environmental Design from the State University of New York at Buffalo and his Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from Cornell University. He began teaching as an Assistant Professor at Eastern Washington (State) University in 1983. In 1984 he came to UW–Madison to teach in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning and the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, eventually attaining the position of Full Professor.

Between 1995 and 1998, Dr. Jacobs served as Chair of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning. From 1994 to 1998 he was also Associate Editor of the journal Society and Natural Resources. Between 1999 and 2002 Dr. Jacobs was the Director of the UW–Madison Land Tenure Center, and during the same period was Associate Editor of the Journal of Planning Education and Research. In 1998, he was the Chester Dean Visiting Professor at the University of Kansas’ School of Architecture and Urban Design. More recently, in 2002 Dr. Jacobs was a Planning and Development Fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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In brief, all three of these individuals have been among some of our best friends at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and this award is a means of recognition and thanks.

Now please, bear with me as I give you a brief history of the prestigious award that these three individuals will receive momentarily. L’Ordre des Palmes Académiques is a Napoleonic invention dating back to 1808 which created, for the University dignitaries of the time, honorary titles to distinguish the eminent positions and to recognize service done in the field of education. The decoration itself, for the Chevalier, or Knight, is composed of two palm branches in the form of a lengthened crown suspended from a purple ribbon. Today, this decoration is conferred on professors, men of letters, scholars, scientists, and others who have distinguished themselves in the field of education and in the advancement of studies in the literary and artistic fields.

Without question, Dr. Allen, Dr. Waller, and Dr. Jacobs are deeply deserving of this honor, both for excellence in their scientific careers and for the cooperation and friendship they have shown to the French both here and abroad.

And now, without further ado, I will switch over to French in order to present the Palmes Académiques, as the conferring sentence must be spoken in French:

Parce que Caitilyn Allen, Donald Waller, et Harvey Jacobs ont été trois de nos grands partenaires de ce campus, des amis de notre pays, et des promoteurs infatigables de la coopération universitaire internationale; je suis très heureux et très honoré de leur rendre hommage cet après-midi et je leur adresse à cette occasion mes félicitations les plus chaleureuses et les plus sincères.

Au nom du gouvernement de la république française, je vous fais Chevaliers de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques.