✨News From the Extreme Universe
Every second, billions of neutrinos pass silently through your body. Most come from the Sun. Some may come from the farthest reaches of the universe.
In this episode of Vis-à-Vis, astrophysicist Angela Olinto, Provost of Columbia University, takes us inside the science of the unseen—from particles that barely interact with matter to cosmic rays carrying more energy than any machine on Earth can produce.
We trace how our understanding of the universe evolved—from early ideas of a static cosmos to today’s picture of an expanding, accelerating universe—and why balloons, space observatories, and gravitational-wave detectors now work together to study black holes, neutron stars, and the most extreme events in nature.
A conversation about curiosity, scale, and what it means to use the universe itself as a laboratory.
🎧 News From the Extreme Universe — available now.
Link in bio.
📌 Check out this article from Sciences Po Research covering our recent Vis À Vis podcast episode, “Research at Sciences Po,” with Sciences Po Dean of the School of Research, Dina Waked, at the link in our bio!
🧠 “Whether in sociology, where scholars examine inequalities of class, gender, race, or social mobility; in political science, where they analyze how power struggles, institutions, and wars shape unequal outcomes; or in history, where we look back at colonialism, slavery, conquest, and empire to understand the realities we live in today—these issues do not exist in silos. The answers often intersect and overlap, informing one another. What is remarkable about the Sciences Po ecosystem is how it encourages interdisciplinary collaboration and cross-fertilization across disciplines.” — Dina Waked, Dean of Sciences Po School of Research
📍 Check out the link in our bio to read more!
Europe will shape the 21st century 🌍
Join us on April 27 for a timely conversation with @jeannoelbarrot , French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, as we explore the major global challenges defining our moment—from the war in Ukraine and tensions in the Strait of Hormuz to the future of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the shifting rules-based international order.
Following his remarks, Minister Barrot will engage in a moderated discussion and Q&A with students on the role of younger generations in shaping diplomacy and navigating an increasingly complex world.
🗣️ Speakers: Jean-Noël Barrot Jean-Marie Guéhenno (Moderator), Columbia SIPA
📅 Monday, April 27 ⏰ 2:00–3:30 PM 📍 IAB 1512
Hosted by the Institute of Global Politics @columbia.sipa , Co-sponsored by the Alliance Program, @europe.columbia , and @siwpscolumbia
One month at Columbia as a visiting scholar- somehow both hyper-specific and impossible to summarize.
I came here through a corridor that shouldn’t fully make sense on paper: practice-based research as an artist from the Sorbonne, held (and slightly destabilized) by Alliance Columbia + Sorbonne. Grateful for structures that still allow for things that don’t resolve neatly.
Thank you @sethcluett for the kind of supervision that doesn’t flatten the work, but listens to where it resists.
In between: recordings, fragments, half-formed ideas, things that almost became something else. A lot of walking. A lot of doubt. Some small, precise moments of clarity.
Also: doing all this with a two-year-old orbiting the whole experience- which means nothing is uninterrupted, nothing is ideal, and somehow everything is more real because of it. Not a balance, not a success story. Just a constant negotiation between attention, exhaustion, and the occasional feeling that something is opening.
Anyway, there was work, mothering, constant questioning. Leaving with more questions than answers (which feels correct).
Thank you @allianceprogram , @paris1pantheonsorbonne and @columbiagsas for this incredible opportunity.
Above all thank you my ride or die @edensarna best father in the world.
Paris next.
🌎 Celebrate Earth Day with the Alliance Program!
🌸 We have compiled our favorite environmental, climate, and planetary conversations from Vis à Vis into this special Earth Day 2025 Playlist.
🐛 Listen to these expert conversations at the link in our bio!
📣 Introducing our latest episode of Vis À Vis, featuring Dina Waked, Dean of the Sciences Po School of Research.
📚 In this episode, we explore how the Sciences Po School of Research has significantly increased its footprint in research, becoming one of the world’s leading institutions in social science research.
💻 The Sciences Po ecosystem is structured around five disciplines: law, economics, history, political science, and sociology. Research priorities include: the analysis of social policy; economic transformations; social inequalities; environmental transition; and the digital revolution.
🎧 Listen to the episode on Spotify at the link in our bio!
We are so excited to share this upcoming event, Digital Twins in Health Care: Clinical, Ethical, and Legal Perspectives! The event will take place from 9 am - 5 pm on Monday, April 27th at the CU School of Social Work, with a Zoom option available!
We are proud to share that Martin Genet, Alliance Visiting Professor from @polytechniqueparis École Polytechnique’s Mechanics Department and Solid Mechanics Laboratory, will be speaking in-person during the panel “Clinical Uses II and Clinical Perspectives.”
Register at the link in our bio.
We can’t wait to host Victor Mallet @victor.mallet.56 , journalist at @financialtimes for the launch of his new book, Far-Right France: Le Pen, Bardella and the Future of Europe. Join us on April 21st at noon in 413 Fayerweather. Link in bio for tickets! 🎟️🎟️🎟️
We are proud to highlight Columbia Professor of Economics, Dr. Joseph E. Stiglitz, and his contribution to the @villa.albertine Night of Ideas New York 2026. He appeared alongside NYU Philosophy Professor Juliana Uhuru Bidadanure, and writer Alissa Quart, moderated by journalist John Summers.
Thank you to all who attended, and we are looking forward to next year’s event. 🌛🌠
#NightofIdeas
#NightofIdeasNewYork
#AllianceProgram
On the occasion of the Night of Ideas on March 31st, Villa Albertine (the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York) hosted a high-level panel discussion on democracy and inequalities with Columbia Professor of Economics Joseph E. Stiglitz, NYU Philosophy Professor Juliana Uhuru Bidadanure, and writer Alissa Quart. The discussion, moderated by journalist John Summers, featured insightful analyses of inequality across disciplines - from economics to philosophy. The panelists warned that current levels of inequality in the United States are unsustainable and may endanger democratic institutions.
📸 Photo credit: Jasmina Tomic
