Exchanging printed copies of the MOU at the signing. From left: Keith Molenaar, dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science; Marie-Hélène Baroux, director general of ISAE-SUPAERO; and Jill Blondin, vice chancellor for global affairs.

Cap sur de nouveaux horizons !

Aerospace at the University of Colorado Boulder is expanding its ties with France.

CU Boulder leadership met July 15, 2026 with a visiting delegation from the Institut Supérieur de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace (ISAE-SUPAERO), a leading French institution for aerospace engineering education and research, to sign a formal memorandum of understanding between the two institutions.

“The synergies between our two institutions are extensive,” said John Evans, chair of the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. “This MOU builds on an already active relationship and creates a framework to expand opportunities in both research and education.”

Located in Toulouse, France, ISAE-SUPAERO was founded as the world’s first dedicated aeronautical school, opening its doors in 1909. Over the ensuing century, it expanded its education and research activities into space and today works across the breadth of aerospace engineering. It currently has about 130 permanent faculty and research personnel and enrolls about 2,000 students.

The visiting delegation included Marie-Hélène Baroux, director general of ISAE-SUPAERO, and Florence Puech, deputy head of international relations. They were joined during the visit by Stéphanie Lizy-Destrez, a professor of space systems engineering at ISAE-SUPAERO who spent the past six months at CU Boulder as a Byram Distinguished Visiting Professor in Smead Aerospace.

Evans is hopeful the partnership will expand opportunities for visiting faculty and students studying abroad on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. In the past, study abroad has been challenging for CU Boulder aerospace students as overseas courses do not easily transfer. The structure of ISAE-SUPAERO’s engineering curriculum offers a particularly strong fit for CU Boulder aerospace students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

The agreement builds on an ongoing relationship between the institutions, including short- and longer-term visits by faculty and students in both Toulouse and Boulder. Lizy-Destrez’s recent appointment provided another example of that collaboration, bringing her expertise in space systems engineering, astrodynamics, and human and robotic space exploration to CU Boulder students and faculty.

As part of the visit, the French delegation met with Chancellor Justin Schwartz, toured the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and the Aerospace Building, and met with students and faculty.

Signing the MOU for CU Boulder was Keith Molenaar, dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Science, and Jill Blondin, vice chancellor for global affairs.