A look back at the New Year ceremony on January 11

The traditional New Year ceremony was held on Thursday, January 11, with speeches by Yves Saint-Geours, Chairman of Institut Pasteur's Board of Directors, and Yasmine Belkaid, Institut Pasteur's new Director General since January 1.

Alongside the Institut's Ambassador, Erik Orsenna, a large number of you attended this ceremony and collectively opened the new year 2024.

The event provided an opportunity to outline Institut Pasteur's prospects for 2024 and beyond.

After greeting the Pasteurians, Yves Saint-Geours wished each and every one of them great professional success and achievements, both individual and collective. He thanked all those who had "carried the company's torch high since last year". Paying tribute to all those involved in the scientific community, as well as to the Pasteur administration "which has always stayed the course to support research", Yves Saint-Geours stressed the importance of bringing everyone together "in the same boat", in the service of science.

The President also emphasized the importance of commitment to "fulfilling the promises of science, the only ones that are worthwhile". He then turned to Yasmine Belkaid to thank her for her commitment, which she is now putting at the service of the institution as its new General Manager. On the threshold of this new mandate", he added, "this commitment will also apply to all the members of the Board of Directors, to support the choices of the future collective project.

Yves Saint-Geours paid tribute to the work carried out by Stewart Cole and to the achievements of the previous strategic plan, with its scientific and institutional successes. This solid foundation, anchored in the four Pasteurian missions, will be useful for the future scientific challenges awaiting the institution, and should nourish the major projects initiated and to come, such as the Center for Vector-Borne Disease Research (CMTV) and the Center for Vaccinology and Immunotherapy (CVI). Institut Pasteur plays a major role in enabling the entire French research system to move forward. "Thanks to its structure and history, Institut Pasteur can move forward [...] it creates the movement", alongside its many partners.

Yves Saint-Geours ended his speech with two strong convictions, shared with Yasmine Belkaid, namely that major scientific challenges are also societal challenges (AI, environment...) and that scientific exemplarity and probity are essential in the face of numerous threats such as violence or inequality. In this context, and with the means at its disposal, Institut Pasteur will continue to "defend science and freedom of action, while promoting youth and thus the future".

Read Yves Saint-Geours' speech (in French)

Taking over from Yves Saint-Geours, Yasmine Belkaid began by thanking the Chairman of the Board for his support. She also paid tribute to her predecessors, in particular Stewart Cole, before describing her formative years, first in Algeria, then at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, where she obtained her doctorate. Yasmine Belkaid then gave a brief overview of her career up to the time she took up her new post, a step she takes with a sense of privilege, humility and joy, linked to the singular identity of our institution: "Pasteur has something extraordinary, it's its four pillars, its four missions, which are fundamental and which correspond well to what science is all about: research, teaching, public health and innovation. This makes it a unique vision of how science should be expressed", she declared. She went on to point out that Institut Pasteur has many assets, including its international identity, due to the multitude of nationalities and cultures on the Paris campus, but also its membership of an "international network", a major strength for working on global health issues and contributing to a science that belongs to humanity.

Proud to be joining a singular institution of science and commitment, resolutely in tune with the times and at the service of society, the new CEO shared her aspirations for building the science of tomorrow, and her desire to do so on today's foundations, guided by major principles and strong values such as the ability to question oneself in order to reinvent oneself, openness to the world and to others, confidence in the future and in young people, who must be protected, and the importance of collective and collaborative work.

These values will be placed at the service of science, health and people, to help rebuild trust between science, the public and governments. They will be anchored in the future strategic plan, which will soon begin to be drawn up on the basis of rich and numerous exchanges with the campus, a decisive step which will be built with all the Institute's stakeholders, because "all functions are necessary to our missions". To this end, and to ensure a collective vision, working groups will be set up to discuss science, the culture of science, the ecosystem of science... This collective work will enable us to continue moving forward and reinventing ourselves, notably through major cross-disciplinary collaborative projects that will enable us to respond to today's societal challenges.

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A cocktail was served at the end of the event to extend the conviviality and exchange of ideas.