Image of the week
A feeling of community
11 Dec 2023
Twelve years ago, Roger Pizot, the recently departed mayor of Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, and Osamu Motojima, then Director-General of the ITER Organization, established a tradition. A few weeks before the end of every year, the municipality of Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, where ITER is administratively located, would present the ITER Organization with a large Christmas tree whose decorations would be lit in the presence of the assembled staff ... and to the sound of the ITER band.
From left to right: ITER's Sriram Kattalai Ramachandran, Head of the Office of the Director-General, and Ioan Cruceana, Chief Institutional Host State Relations, stand with Saint-Paul-lez-Durance Deputy-Mayor Elise Placé and Councilor Sandrine Meyer.
The ceremony this year took place on 4 December in the presence of Deputy-Mayor Elise Placé and Councilor Sandrine Meyer (representing Mayor Romain Buchaut who succeeded Roger Pizot in 2020). On the ITER side, Sriram Kattalai Ramachandran, Head of the Office of the Director-General, and Ioan Cruceana, Chief Institutional Host State Relations, represented Director-General Pietro Barabaschi.
"Saint-Paul-lez-Durance is [...] our home away from home," said Sriram. For the ITER staff and collaborators, the lighting of the tree carries a double significance: "It makes us feel part of a community, and it symbolizes our constant efforts towards lighting up the Earth with a new star."