Portrait of a scientist in the International Network: Halima Maïnassara: from field investigator to Director of CERMES in Niger

Each month for the coming semester, the International Affairs Department will present the portrait of a scientist in the Institut Pasteur International Network. This monthly snapshot will offer a glimpse of the career, commitment and challenges – together with some choice anecdotes – of those whose efforts ensure that Pasteurian research reaches every continent worldwide.

The second portrait is of Dr Halima Maïnassaraof that, in February 2017, is the first woman from Niger to be appointed Director General of the Center for Medical and Health Research (CERMES) in Niamey. Physician, epidemiologist expert in meningitis, she started to work for this public institution, member of the Institut Pasteur International Network, in February 2005 as a field investigator.

Since primary school, Halima Boubacar Maïnassara knew she wanted to become a doctor: "I always said that I wanted to be the person in a blouse that looks after the little ones," says the daughter of a teacher and an educational advisor. Her high school diploma with honors allows her to obtain a scholarship to study abroad. Halima goes to Mali where she graduated in 2004 from the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of Bamako

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