ISTO is a research laboratory in Earth Sciences, working on various spheres of Earth’s system (upper mantle, continental crust, critical zone) and their interfaces. Our research follows the classic succession in natural sciences: observation - analysis / experimentation - modeling. Research applications concern primary resources (mineral, energy, water), volcanic hazards (degassing, explosivity), and the cause-effect relations from anthropogenic pressure to environmental impacts. Five major research units structure our institute, and five platforms make their resources available to all staff.
ISTO is thematically structured, but characterized by an overarching research methodology grounded in the use of laboratory experiments to study processes and conditions of natural systems. The institute is proud to harbor research units and their equipment that investigate Earth’s system from the deep mantle to the surface. 90% of the budget of ISTO comes from collective or individual contracts, which variably support members and instrumentation at the institute scale. This is the place to point out that budgetary constraints, although crucial for the dynamics of our research efforts, have not prevented project coordinators from combining ‘personal’ ambitions and collective achievements.
By starting this new contract, I do hope that we will continue together on this successful path, living in a very concrete way the bond, both fragile and so human, expressed by the simple, yet profound word: UNITE.
