Pierre Martin-Dussaud: Can French Administration be more sexy than Quantum Gravity?

After ten years in science, wandering between quantum gravity and quantum foundations, I have entered l’Institut National du Service Public (ex-ENA) to pursue a career as top executive in the French administration. In this unusual talk, I will offer my personal take on the following questions: – Is there a life after academia? – What have I really learned in physics? – How to win a Marie Curie fellowship? – How will French administration quantize gravity? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For announcements of upcoming seminars you can visit http://www.qiss.fr/virtual-seminars.html or join our mailing list through https://groups.google.com/forum/#!for.... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About QISS The Quantum Information Structure of Spacetime (http://www.qiss.fr) is an interdisciplinary research initiative among several universities and research institutes all over the world, supported by the John Templeton Foundation through the grants https://www.templeton.org/grant/the-q... and https://www.templeton.org/grant/the-q..., coordinated from The Samy Maroun Center for Space, Time and the Quantum (http://www.spacetimeandquantum.com). The goal of QISS is to explore and connect the research domains of Quantum Information/Computing, Quantum Gravity and Quantum Foundations. Main objectives are to found the physics of quantum spacetime on an information-theoretic basis, to bring within reach empirical access to quantum gravity in 'table-top' laboratory conditions by exploiting rapid advances in quantum computing related technologies and using quantum information theoretic concepts, and to promote an extensive interaction between physicists and philosophers on the conceptual role of information in spacetime physics.