1.
Paris
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Paris is the capital and most populous city of France. It has an area of 105 square kilometres and a population of 2,229,621 in 2013 within its administrative limits, the agglomeration has grown well beyond the citys administrative limits. By the 17th century, Paris was one of Europes major centres of finance, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts, and it retains that position still today. The aire urbaine de Paris, a measure of area, spans most of the Île-de-France region and has a population of 12,405,426. It is therefore the second largest metropolitan area in the European Union after London, the Metropole of Grand Paris was created in 2016, combining the commune and its nearest suburbs into a single area for economic and environmental co-operation. Grand Paris covers 814 square kilometres and has a population of 7 million persons, the Paris Region had a GDP of €624 billion in 2012, accounting for 30.0 percent of the GDP of France and ranking it as one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. The city is also a rail, highway, and air-transport hub served by two international airports, Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly. Opened in 1900, the subway system, the Paris Métro. It is the second busiest metro system in Europe after Moscow Metro, notably, Paris Gare du Nord is the busiest railway station in the world outside of Japan, with 262 millions passengers in 2015. In 2015, Paris received 22.2 million visitors, making it one of the top tourist destinations. The association football club Paris Saint-Germain and the rugby union club Stade Français are based in Paris, the 80, 000-seat Stade de France, built for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, is located just north of Paris in the neighbouring commune of Saint-Denis. Paris hosts the annual French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament on the red clay of Roland Garros, Paris hosted the 1900 and 1924 Summer Olympics and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. The name Paris is derived from its inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe. Thus, though written the same, the name is not related to the Paris of Greek mythology. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, since the late 19th century, Paris has also been known as Panam in French slang. Inhabitants are known in English as Parisians and in French as Parisiens and they are also pejoratively called Parigots. The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of the 3rd century BC. One of the areas major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on the île de la Cité, this place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town
2.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
3.
Fontainebleau
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Fontainebleau is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located 55.5 kilometres south-southeast of the centre of Paris, Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the arrondissement of Fontainebleau. The commune has the largest land area in the Île-de-France region, Fontainebleau, together with the neighbouring commune of Avon and three other smaller communes, form an urban area of 39,713 inhabitants. This urban area is a satellite of Paris, inhabitants of Fontainebleau are called Bellifontains. Fontainebleau has been recorded in different Latinised forms, such as, Fons Bleaudi, Fons Bliaudi, Fons Blaadi in the 12th and 13th centuries and it became Fons Bellaqueus in the 17th century, which gave rise to the name of the inhabitants as Bellifontains. The name originates as a composite of two words, Fontaine– meaning spring, or fountainhead, followed by a person’s Germanic name Blizwald. This hamlet was endowed with a hunting lodge and a chapel by Louis VII in the middle of the twelfth century. A century later, Louis IX, also called Saint Louis, who held Fontainebleau in high esteem and referred to it as his wilderness, had a country house, philip the Fair was born there in 1268 and died there in 1314. In all, thirty-four sovereigns, from Louis VI, the Fat, to Napoleon III, the connection between the town of Fontainebleau and the French monarchy was reinforced with the transformation of the royal country house into a true royal palace, the Palace of Fontainebleau. On 18 October 1685, Louis XIV signed the Edict of Fontainebleau there, the result was that a large number of Protestants were forced to convert to the Catholic faith, killed, or forced into exile, mainly in the Low Countries, Prussia and in England. The 1762 Treaty of Fontainebleau, an agreement between France and Spain concerning the Louisiana territory in North America, was concluded here. Also, preliminary negotiations, held before the 1763 Treaty of Paris was signed, during the French Revolution, Fontainebleau was temporarily renamed Fontaine-la-Montagne, meaning Fountain by the Mountain. On 20 June 1812, Pope Pius VII arrived at the château of Fontainebleau, after a transfer from Savona, accompanied by his personal physician. In poor health, the Pope was the prisoner of Napoleon, from June 1812 until 23 January 1814, the Pope never left his apartments. According to contemporary sources, the occasion was very moving, the 1814 Treaty of Fontainebleau stripped Napoleon of his powers and sent him into exile on Elba. Until the 19th century, Fontainebleau was a village and a suburb of Avon, later, it developed as an independent residential city. For the 1924 Summer Olympics, the town played host to the portion of the modern pentathlon event. This event took place near a golf course, Fontainebleau also hosted the general staff of the Allied Forces in Central Europe and the land forces command, the air forces command was located nearby at Camp Guynemer
4.
PSL Research University
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PSL Research University is a collegiate university formed from 18 institutions of research and higher education in the Paris area, and three national research organizations. The project was presented in January 2011, in response to a tender of the French Ministry for Higher Education, PSL* brings together 13 chartered institutions, located in Paris and the greater Paris area, and is represented by the Paris Sciences et Lettres - Quartier latin Foundation. Those institutions, encompassing a broad scope, decided to join forces. Its name, which means Sciences and Humanities, hints at the fact that PSL wants to push to the forefront contact points between hard and soft sciences, beyond its academic goals, PSL is equally committed to keep Paris downtown as a high place for scientific and student life. Its campus project is liable to give a new impulse Paris, with its location in the Latin Quarter, in the South of Paris. From this point of view, it runs counter with a trend that tends to delocate campuses outside of Paris. Member institutions cover a wide field, ranging from astrophysics, to arts, as well as economics and management, engineering. Liste, Within the Investments for the Future programme, €21.9 billion are to be allocated to higher-education, PSL* was constituted as a way to pool forces and reap benefits from this programme, so as to promote its excellence science and training tradition. The results of these tenders are announced following different schedules since the end of January 2011, from the very beginning, PSL has been a notable shareholder in the calls for projects. The 52 laureates had been selected by a committee, under chairmanship of the Canadian Philippe Le Prestre. The Equipex grants are intended to fund capital-intensive facilities for advanced scientific research, the overall allotment for the Equipex is €340 million, of which €260 million is immediately usable and €80 million temporarily blocked as an endowment. The selected projects will be awarded between 2 and 10 million euros, PSL* institutions have obtained seven of the 10 Equipex they had applied for. They represent all academic fields, from humanities to life sciences, most of the time, scientists belonging to non-PSL* institutions have been associated to these projects. Conversely, PSL* scientists may use Equipex facilities supported by other institutions, for PSL*, the selected projects are, D-FIH. Excellence Equipments, Launched in 2010, the Equipex call for projects was devised to finance pioneering research equipment with an budget of around €1 billion. The results were published in late February 2010, among the 52 Equipex selected, PSL has obtained 8 of the 10 projects it had presented. The results of the Excellence laboratories tender were published on March 25,2011 by the French ministry for Higher Education, sometimes coupled with Excellence facilities, the Labex are to help promising research teams in all academic fields. PSL* institutions have obtained 11 Labex projects, of this number,6 projects directly supported by PSL* have been awarded a grant
5.
Louis XVI of France
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Louis XVI, born Louis-Auguste, was the last King of France and Navarre before the French Revolution, during which he was also known as Louis Capet. In 1765, at the death of his father, Louis, Dauphin of France, son and heir apparent of Louis XV of France, Louis XVI was guillotined on 21 January 1793. The first part of his reign was marked by attempts to reform France in accordance with Enlightenment ideas and these included efforts to abolish serfdom, remove the taille, and increase tolerance toward non-Catholics. The French nobility reacted to the reforms with hostility. Louis implemented deregulation of the market, advocated by his liberal minister Turgot. In periods of bad harvests, it would lead to food scarcity which would prompt the masses to revolt, from 1776, Louis XVI actively supported the North American colonists, who were seeking their independence from Great Britain, which was realized in the 1783 Treaty of Paris. The ensuing debt and financial crisis contributed to the unpopularity of the Ancien Régime and this led to the convening of the Estates-General of 1789. In 1789, the storming of the Bastille during riots in Paris marked the beginning of the French Revolution. Louiss indecisiveness and conservatism led some elements of the people of France to view him as a symbol of the tyranny of the Ancien Régime. The credibility of the king was deeply undermined, and the abolition of the monarchy, Louis XVI was the only King of France ever to be executed, and his death brought an end to more than a thousand years of continuous French monarchy. Louis-Auguste de France, who was given the title Duc de Berry at birth, was born in the Palace of Versailles. Out of seven children, he was the son of Louis, the Dauphin of France. His mother was Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, the daughter of Frederick Augustus II of Saxony, Prince-Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. A strong and healthy boy, but very shy, Louis-Auguste excelled in his studies and had a taste for Latin, history, geography, and astronomy. He enjoyed physical activities such as hunting with his grandfather, and rough-playing with his brothers, Louis-Stanislas, comte de Provence. From an early age, Louis-Auguste had been encouraged in another of his hobbies, locksmithing, upon the death of his father, who died of tuberculosis on 20 December 1765, the eleven-year-old Louis-Auguste became the new Dauphin. His mother never recovered from the loss of her husband, and died on 13 March 1767, throughout his education, Louis-Auguste received a mixture of studies particular to religion, morality, and humanities. His instructors may have also had a hand in shaping Louis-Auguste into the indecisive king that he became
6.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, often cited as one of the worlds most prestigious universities. Researchers worked on computers, radar, and inertial guidance during World War II, post-war defense research contributed to the rapid expansion of the faculty and campus under James Killian. The current 168-acre campus opened in 1916 and extends over 1 mile along the bank of the Charles River basin. The Institute is traditionally known for its research and education in the sciences and engineering, and more recently in biology, economics, linguistics. Air Force and 6 Fields Medalists have been affiliated with MIT, the school has a strong entrepreneurial culture, and the aggregated revenues of companies founded by MIT alumni would rank as the eleventh-largest economy in the world. In 1859, a proposal was submitted to the Massachusetts General Court to use newly filled lands in Back Bay, Boston for a Conservatory of Art and Science, but the proposal failed. A charter for the incorporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Rogers, a professor from the University of Virginia, wanted to establish an institution to address rapid scientific and technological advances. The Rogers Plan reflected the German research university model, emphasizing an independent faculty engaged in research, as well as instruction oriented around seminars, two days after the charter was issued, the first battle of the Civil War broke out. After a long delay through the war years, MITs first classes were held in the Mercantile Building in Boston in 1865, in 1863 under the same act, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts founded the Massachusetts Agricultural College, which developed as the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In 1866, the proceeds from sales went toward new buildings in the Back Bay. MIT was informally called Boston Tech, the institute adopted the European polytechnic university model and emphasized laboratory instruction from an early date. Despite chronic financial problems, the institute saw growth in the last two decades of the 19th century under President Francis Amasa Walker. Programs in electrical, chemical, marine, and sanitary engineering were introduced, new buildings were built, the curriculum drifted to a vocational emphasis, with less focus on theoretical science. The fledgling school still suffered from chronic financial shortages which diverted the attention of the MIT leadership, during these Boston Tech years, MIT faculty and alumni rebuffed Harvard University president Charles W. Eliots repeated attempts to merge MIT with Harvard Colleges Lawrence Scientific School. There would be at least six attempts to absorb MIT into Harvard, in its cramped Back Bay location, MIT could not afford to expand its overcrowded facilities, driving a desperate search for a new campus and funding. Eventually the MIT Corporation approved an agreement to merge with Harvard, over the vehement objections of MIT faculty, students. However, a 1917 decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court effectively put an end to the merger scheme, the neoclassical New Technology campus was designed by William W. Bosworth and had been funded largely by anonymous donations from a mysterious Mr. Smith, starting in 1912. In January 1920, the donor was revealed to be the industrialist George Eastman of Rochester, New York, who had invented methods of production and processing
7.
California Institute of Technology
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The California Institute of Technology is a private doctorate-granting university located in Pasadena, California, United States. The vocational and preparatory schools were disbanded and spun off in 1910, the university is one among a small group of Institutes of Technology in the United States which is primarily devoted to the instruction of technical arts and applied sciences. Caltech has six divisions with strong emphasis on science and engineering, managing $332 million in 2011 in sponsored research. Its 124-acre primary campus is located approximately 11 mi northeast of downtown Los Angeles, first-year students are required to live on campus, and 95% of undergraduates remain in the on-campus House System at Caltech. Although Caltech has a tradition of practical jokes and pranks. The Caltech Beavers compete in 13 intercollegiate sports in the NCAA Division IIIs Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, Caltech is frequently cited as one of the worlds best universities. There are 112 faculty members who have elected to the United States National Academies. In addition, numerous faculty members are associated with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as well as NASA, according to a 2015 Pomona College study, Caltech ranked number one in the U. S. for the percentage of its graduates who go on to earn a PhD. Caltech started as a school founded in Pasadena in 1891 by local businessman and politician Amos G. Throop. The school was known successively as Throop University, Throop Polytechnic Institute, the vocational school was disbanded and the preparatory program was split off to form an independent Polytechnic School in 1907. At a time when research in the United States was still in its infancy, George Ellery Hale. He joined Throops board of trustees in 1907, and soon began developing it and he engineered the appointment of James A. B. Scherer, a literary scholar untutored in science but a capable administrator and fund raiser, scherer persuaded retired businessman and trustee Charles W. Gates to donate $25,000 in seed money to build Gates Laboratory, the first science building on campus. In 1910, Throop moved to its current site, arther Fleming donated the land for the permanent campus site. The promise of Throop attracted physical chemist Arthur Amos Noyes from MIT to develop the institution and assist in establishing it as a center for science, with the onset of World War I, Hale organized the National Research Council to coordinate and support scientific work on military problems. This institution, with its able investigators and excellent research laboratories, through the National Research Council, Hale simultaneously lobbied for science to play a larger role in national affairs, and for Throop to play a national role in science. During the course of the war, Hale, Noyes and Millikan worked together in Washington on the NRC, subsequently, they continued their partnership in developing Caltech. Under the leadership of Hale, Noyes and Millikan, Caltech grew to prominence in the 1920s
8.
National University of Singapore
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The National University of Singapore is an autonomous university in Singapore. Founded in 1905, it is the oldest institute of learning in Singapore, as well as the largest university in the country in terms of student enrolment. NUS is a research-intensive, comprehensive university with an entrepreneurial dimension, NUS is ranked as Asias top university in both the QS World University Rankings and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings in 2016. According to the latest 2016 QS World University Rankings, NUS is placed 12th in the world, NUS also fared well in the 2016–17 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, coming in 24th in the world and 1st in Asia. NUSs main campus is located in South-West Singapore adjacent to Kent Ridge, the Bukit Timah campus houses the Faculty of Law, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and research institutes, while the Duke-NUS Medical School Singapore is located at the Outram campus. Tan, who was the first president of the Straits Chinese British Association, managed to raise 87,077 Straits dollars, on 3 July 1905, the medical school was founded, and was known as the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Government Medical School. In 1912, the school received an endowment of $120,000 from the King Edward VII Memorial Fund. Subsequently, on 18 November 1913, the name of the school was changed to the King Edward VII Medical School, in 1921, it was again changed to the King Edward VII College of Medicine to reflect its academic status. In 1928, Raffles College was established to promote arts and social sciences at tertiary level for Malayan students, two decades later, Raffles College was merged with the King Edward VII College of Medicine to form the University of Malaya on 8 October 1949. The two institutions were merged to provide for the education needs of the Federation of Malaya. In 1960, the governments of then Federation of Malaya and Singapore indicated their desire to change the status of the divisions into that of a national university. Legislation was passed in 1961 establishing the former Kuala Lumpur division as the University of Malaya while the Singapore division was renamed the University of Singapore on 1 January 1962, the National University of Singapore was formed with the merger of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University in 1980. This was done in part due to the desire to pool the two institutions resources into a single, stronger entity, and promote English as Singapores main language of education. The original crest of Nanyang University with three intertwined rings was incorporated into the new coat-of-arms of NUS, NUS began its entrepreneurial education endeavours in the 1980s, with the setting up of the Centre for Management of Innovation and Technopreneurship in 1988. In 2001, this was renamed the NUS Entrepreneurship Centre, NUS has a semester-based modular system for conducting courses. It adopts features of the British system, such as small group teaching, students may transfer between courses within their first two semesters, enrol in cross-faculty modules or take up electives from different faculties. NUS has 16 faculties and schools, including a Music Conservatory, NUS has been ranked among the best in the Asia by two international ranking systems, the QS World University Rankings and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. The QS World University Rankings 2016–17 ranked NUS 12th in the world and 1st in Asia, the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2016–17 placed NUS at 24th in the world and 1st in Asia, while its 2015–16 reputation rankings placed it at 24th globally
9.
Tokyo Institute of Technology
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Tokyo Institute of Technology is a national research university located in Greater Tokyo Area, Japan. Tokyo Tech is the largest institution for education in Japan dedicated to science and technology. Tokyo Techs main campus is located at Ōokayama on the boundary of Meguro and Ota, other campuses are located in Suzukakedai and Tamachi. Tokyo Tech is organised into 6 schools, within there are over 40 departments. Tokyo Tech enrolled 4,734 undergraduates and 1,464 graduate students for 2015-2016 and it employs around 1,100 faculty members. Tokyo Institute of Technology was founded by the government of Japan as the Tokyo Vocational School on May 26,1881,14 years after the Meiji Restoration, to accomplish the quick catch-up to the West, the government expected this school to cultivate new modernized craftsmen and engineers. In 1890, it was renamed Tokyo Technical School, in 1901, it changed name to Tokyo Higher Technical School. In early days, the school was located in Kuramae, the area of the Greater Tokyo Area. The buildings in Kuramae campus were destroyed by the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923, in the following year, the Tokyo Higher Technical School moved from Kuramae to the present site in Ookayama, a south suburb of the Greater Tokyo Area. In 1929 the school became Tokyo Institute of Technology, gaining a status of national university, after World War II, the new education system was promulgated in 1949 with the National School Establishment Law, and Tokyo Institute of Technology was reorganized. Many three-year courses were turned into four-year courses with the start of the School of Engineering this year, the university started graduate programmes in engineering in 1953. Since April 2004, it has been semi-privatized into the National University Incorporation of Tokyo Institute of Technology under a new law applied to all national universities. In 2011, it celebrated the 130th anniversary of its founding, in 2014, it joined the edX consortium and formed the Online Education Development Office to create MOOCS, which are hosted on the edX website. In its 130 years, Tokyo Tech has provided scientific researchers and engineers and many social leaders, Tokyo Tech has three campuses, the Ōokayama campus in Ōokayama Meguro as the main campus, Tamachi campus in Shibaura and the Suzukakedai campus, located in Nagatsuta, Midori-ku in Yokohama. Ōokayama Station campus Tamachi campus Suzukakedai campus The university is undergoing an educational reform and schools. It is the home of Japans largest science and technology library, the library was founded in 1882, and it lost nearly 28,000 books during the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923. Moved to Ookayama in 1936, it has been the national science,1,200 students and staff visit the library each day. It has 674,000 books and 2,500 journals, including 1,600 foreign academic journals and it provides around 7,000 registered electronic journals each year
