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Hazel hair, green eyes, tall and thin: Stéphane Grumbach is the classic image of a French gentleman. A senior scientist on information

technology, he has carried out research in France, the US, Italy and Canada.

Now working as French Director of the joint Sino-French Lab on Information, Automation and Applied Mathematics (Liama) under the CAS Institute of Automation, Prof. Grumbach has settled his family in Sanlitun, east of Beijing city.

Everyday he drives to his office, which is on the 11th floor of the Plaza of Automation in Zhongguancun district, China’s silicon valley. The building has been recently completed, neat and modern, but the professor has little time to enjoy it. He’s always got so many papers to read and so many things to handle.

And today is of no exception. The first thing to start with in the morning is a cup of tea and a glance over the schedule: Meeting research partner LIN Huimin at 10 am, having lunch with Liama’s Chinese director JIANG Tianzi, an interview with journalist from the Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and talking to doctoral students in the afternoon, and a project report to be finished before supper.

One day of a French scientist at the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Today, more and more expat scientists have started their long-term work at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. For instance, as BCAS journalist XIN Ling

reports, Professor Stéphane Grumbach is strongly involved in Sino-French cooperation and exchange in the IT sector.

Prof. LIN Huimin, CAS academician and world-renowned expert in theoretical computer science, is an old friend of Prof. Grumbach. Today, they carry out a hot discussion over some crucial development of Netquest, Grumbach’s project at Liama, which focuses on dynamic networks of autonomous devices supporting data intensive applications.

Wireless networks connecting independent devices will become popular in the future. Cars driving in cities or on land roads will be able to communicate with their neighbors first for security purposes, then for more complex tasks like intelligent transportation systems which optimize traffic conditions. Also, objects of our everyday life are going to connect to each other in an intelligent

Prof. Stéphane Grumbach in his lab.

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Stéphane Grumbach extends a warm welcome to guests at Liama 10th Anniversary.

home environment.Programming ad hoc networks, which organize

themselves with an often opportunistic manner, remains a very tedious task today. Prof. Grumbach proposes a new way which allows easy programming of such networks in a declarative fashion, that is, essentially independent of the physical specification of the devices as well as the network. It relies on a methodology originating in databases, which is the specialty of Prof. Grumbach.

As a matter of fact, the French director has worked as an IT researcher for many years. After getting his PhD in computer science from the University of Paris XI in 1990 and working as a postdoc at the University of California in San Diego, Stéphane set out his academic odyssey with the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA). He was devoted to database research in the following years, and developed a constraint-based spatial prototype called the DEDALE system.

This meeting with Prof. Lin is just an ordinary one among their frequent mutual visits, which are now convenient since Prof. Grumbach is working at Liama, just a few blocks away from the Institute of Software where Prof. Lin works. Two doctoral applicants of Prof. Lin have also come to join the project.

Liama was established to forge solid ties between French and Chinese IT researchers through permanent and concrete collaborations. “To date, it is the only Sino-French laboratory with numerous permanent researchers and students from both countries, and not just the traditional

practice of short-time scholar visits,” the professor notes.As an open research hub, it supports a wide range of

collaborative research projects in domains such as remote-sensing, computer graphics, CAD, as well as modeling and image analysis and synthesis for biology, medicine and environment.

After 11 years of joint efforts, this initiative comes out as a great success. With supports from partner institutes, funding agencies, the French embassy as well as industrial partners, Liama now boasts some 20 researchers, 100 students and a large number of visiting scholars. Half a dozen of the researchers are French; two or three more will join next September. One hundred projects involving up to 1,000 researchers and students have been carried out here. In 2007, Liama was listed, together with 32 top research groups across China, in a key project launched by the Ministry of Science and Technology on a national joint international cooperation center.

But Prof. Grumbach has more ambitions for Liama in a context which has changed tremendously in the last few years.

During his rendezvous with Prof. Jiang Tianzi, his Chinese counterpart, they talk about the lab’s administrative routines, but more importantly, on the upcoming enlargement of Liama.

“Besides an expansion to more research institutes and enterprises in the fields of IT, we are going to open up to other European partners.” By then, it will no longer be a Sino-French lab, but a Sino-European structure.

As they recall the founders of Liama, both directors agree it is time to renew the lab by developing a long-term vision as ambitious and strategic as the one of their forerunners. Jacques-Louis Lions, a well-known French mathematician with strategic outlooks on domestic S&T policy and Sino-European relations, initiated an official cooperation agreement between INRIA and CAS in 1981: that is only three years after China started its reform and open-up drive. Prof. MA Songde, who completed his PhD and worked at INRIA during the 1980s, founded Liama in 1997. Ma later became Chinese vice minister for Science and Technology.

Recent visits of top officials from French research bodies, for instance, the president of the French National

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A Green StreamI have sailed the River of Yellow Flowers,

Borne by the channel of a green stream,

Rounding ten thousand turns through the mountains

On a journey of less than thirty miles.

Rapids hum over heaped rocks;

But where light grows dim in the thick pines,

The surface of an inlet sways with nut-horns

And weeds are lush along the banks.

…Down in my heart I have always been as pure

As this limpid water is.

Oh, to remain on a broad flat rock

And to cast a fishing-line forever!

– By Wang Wei (701–761), a famous Tang Dynasty

Chinese poet

Center for Scientific Research, Catherine Brechignac, as well as INRIA chairman, Michel Cosnard, all highlighted that the French side supports Liama’s growth into a multi-lateral cooperation structure with other EU nations.

“Based on many common grounds and mutual understanding, there is a large potential for increased win-win relations between China and Europe, which is today not quite at the level of the EU-US nor of the Sino-US S&T exchanges to say the least,” the French director stresses.

Prof. Grumbach believes Liama can play a key role at this point, as he tries to organize Liama as a structure which will be influential in IT exchanges between Europe and China through research, training and technology transfer. Liama’s 10th anniversary was a major event of the China-EU Science and Technology Year in 2007.

Prof. Grumbach is well aware of Liama’s significance to both sides. China’s budget for international exchange is on a tremendous increase, and EU-Sino relations are critical in all fields. “China has a strong ambition for S&T development and puts IT on the top of its priorities. The country is well on its way to becoming a giant in the IT sector.” As France is going to take over the EU's rotating presidency in July, a brand-new Liama can be expected.

The lunch finishes at 2 pm, and Prof. Grumbach hurries back to his office. The journalist is already there.

She is amazed at his office filled with Chinese elements as well as piles and piles of papers. The calligraphy hanging on the wall reads a famous ancient poem “Night Mooring Near Maple Bridge”. On the desk there is a traditional Chinese bonsai and an old-fashioned blue-and-white porcelain tea mug.

She is also impressed with his fluent Chinese.In fact, the Frenchman didn’t come to China by

coincidence. His relations with the country started when he was only 15 years old. Like many French teenagers, he found interest in China and its culture, and began to learn the language. Stéphane’s parents are both linguists, which helped him develop a special love for this widely-acknowledged difficult tongue.

His Chinese name, GUO Qingxi, was given to him by one of his first Chinese teacher. “It comes from the poem ‘A Green Stream’ by a famous Tang-dynasty poet Wang Wei, which I like very much. More importantly, the poem’s title

shows exactly the meaning of my name — of a German origin, ‘grum’ means green (‘qing’) and ‘bach’ means a stream or brook (‘xi’),” he smiles.

To see China with his own eyes, young Grumbach arrived in Beijing for the first time in 1984. During his stay, he was involved in a three-month language training course at the Beijing Language University, and traveled a lot across the country.

Recalling his earlier visits to China, Prof. Grumbach says that so much has changed in China since then. The economic growth is obvious, and the intellectual development even more fascinating.

He married Paris-based Chinese composer XU Yi, who is a native of Nanjing. Mrs. Grumbach is busy preparing a concert with musicians in Shanghai these days. The Grumbach family has two boys, one 12-year-old and the other 10.

Grumbach’s stays in China had always been short until the year 2003. Then an INRIA researcher and head of the department for international relations, he got a chance to go to China as the science counselor of the French Embassy in Beijing. As a diplomat, he visited a large number of research institutes, including many CAS institutes, to promote their cooperation with France.

Busy as a diplomat could be, Grumbach still found some time to study China’s S&T policies. He was impressed by the country’s reforms in this regard, which,

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in his words, are “coherent” and “well-designed”.“I’m surprised at the living quality of scientific

researchers in China. In addition to advanced facilities on modern university campuses, people working for institutes lead a very decent life. This is not the case in many developing as well as developed countries. The Chinese authorities developed a coherent thinking not only on the working conditions, but more generally on the living conditions.”

His arrival at Liama is a comeback to scientific research after years of d ip loma t i c l i f e . P ro f . G r u m b a c h l i k e s b o t h roles. “As a diplomat you handle lots of things on a broad spectrum, while as a scientist you need to concentrate in depth on wel l c i rcumscribed problems at a different pace.”

“Anyway, I like changes,” he declares.

Bidding farewell to the journalist, Prof. Grumbach doesn’t bother to have a rest. Within five minutes, the office is busy again – with his doctoral students.

Prof. Grumbach has been an experienced supervisor for nearly 13 years. Back in 1995, he obtained the habilitation as a PhD advisor from the University of Paris XI. In 2006, he was granted the habilitation of the CAS Institute of Automation. In fact, the Frenchman is the first foreigner to receive this title, in any field, at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

He has three PhD students this year, one from the Institute of Automation and two from the Institute of Software, all Chinese. “They are very diligent.”

One student has just revised a research paper, so together they discuss about the paper. Prof. Grumbach gives advices on its content and language skills.

The professor observes differences between French and Chinese students. “In France, students are more outspoken. They argue more to defend their academic convictions.”

French students choose their PhD advisor much

later than most students in China. They already have their master, and in general, have taken classes with the professor to whom they will apply as their adviser. They also have ideas of the research directions in which they want to work, and choose their advisor accordingly. Conversely, the advisors take their decision to accept students on the basis of their preliminary research results.

Mixing European and Chinese students on common projects is both efficient for the advancement of projects and rich for cultural exchanges. This year, the p ro fe s so r i nv i t ed fou r French students, who now work at the lab for a 4- to 6-month stay, to team up and make friends with their Chinese counterparts.

M e a n w h i l e , P r o f . Grumbach has insights into China’s graduate education

system. For the master-doctor combined program, he is surprised at the lack of selective qualifying exam in China before students are admitted to continue in the PhD program. Many US universities offering combined programs have such an exam, which only a proportion of the applicants can pass.

By nature, master and doctoral programs are quite different stages of the academic research curricula. That’s why most European universities do not offer master-doctor combined programs at all.

Europe encourages the mobility of students. It is even mandatory in a large number of European universities. The Erasmus program, named after the Dutch humanist of the late 15th to early 16th century who worked in numerous places in Europe, has benefited to more than a million students to study abroad. This mobility is of tremendous importance for innovation. The US, more than any other country, have built impressive universities with people from all around the world, including a large population of people educated in China.

“LIAMA constitutes a portal to Europe for Chinese students, and a portal to China for European ones,” he says.

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Time to be spent with young men always seems far from enough.

But Prof. Grumbach has to work on. He will finish a report on a European project before supper. In fact, he is also going to meet with Richard Hull whom he invited as a distinguished speaker to the 9th International Conference on Mobile Data Management. The conference was held in Beijing in late April, 2008, for which Prof. Grumbach is a co-PC chair.

The French director generally works till eight o’clock.

What will he have for dinner? French cuisine, maybe. Sichuan food, his favorite, maybe.

Stéphane loves the Great Wall, and mountaineering with family and friends is his best recreation. He has prepared a 10 km hike from Jinshanling to Simatai for next Saturday with 50 of the lab’s students, professors, and several visitors from Europe in both academia and industry.

Just like any other challenge, a prosperous future for Liama is the one Prof. Grumbach envisions.

Liama scholars and students have a good time hiking from Jinshanling to Simatai Great Wall in suburban Beijing on May 24th, 2008.

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