Margaret Buckingham and Annick Perrot receive the Legion of Honor

On July 14, 392 people were awarded the Legion of Honor, the highest order of merit in France. Recipients of the medal, which this year was awarded in equal numbers to men and women, include magistrates, artists and elected representatives, as well as industry leaders and researchers.

Those recognized this year include:

 

• Margaret Buckingham, promoted to the rank of Commander.

Margaret Buckingham, who joined the Institut Pasteur in 1975 as a CNRS Research Associate, is a leading figure in developmental biology research, specializing in muscle and heart formation.

She became a head of laboratory in 1987 in the Molecular Genetics of Development Unit and was appointed as a Professor at the Institut Pasteur in 1992, then as a Professor Emeritus in 2009. She was also appointed as an Emeritus Director of Research at the CNRS in 2008. Margaret Buckingham directed the Department of Molecular Biology from 1990 to 1994 and the Department of Developmental Biology from 2002 to 2006. Her research on stem cells in embryos and adults demonstrated that the genes involved in myogenesis in embryos, especially the Pax3 and Pax7 genes, also contribute to postnatal growth and to the regeneration of damaged adult muscles.

Margaret Buckingham has been a member of the French Academy of Sciences since 2005, a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences since 2011, and a member of the British Royal Society since 2013. She was also a member of the French National Consultative Ethics Committee until 2016. She was awarded the Boehringer Prize in 1980, the Jaffé Prize in 1990 and the CNRS Gold Medal in 2013. Since 2016, she has been an Honorary Professor at the Institut Pasteur.

 

• Annick Perrot, promoted to the rank of Knight.

Annick Perrot, an alumna of the École du Louvre, was curator of the Pasteur Museum at the Institut Pasteur from 1982 to 2010. Her achievements in this role were considerable: she improved access to the museum, organized a huge number of exhibitions and gave many lectures, both at the Institut Pasteur and abroad. She was able to achieve a complete overhaul of the Pasteur Museum, while remaining firmly in keeping with the spirit of the place and of Louis Pasteur. She was determined to open up the museum more widely to young people and school visits, with the aim of kindling an interest in science among school students of all ages.

Annick Perrot also played a key role in setting up museums dedicated to Louis Pasteur in South-East Asia. Since taking retirement, she has continued to help raise awareness of Louis Pasteur's achievements, publishing several books in collaboration with Maxime Schwartz. In 2016-2017, she once again joined forces with Maxime Schwartz, scientific curator of the exhibition "Pasteur, the Experimenter", co-editing an illustrated book entitled Louis Pasteur, le visionnaire, which served as the official catalog of the exhibition.

With unwavering commitment throughout her career and beyond, Annick Perrot has made a major contribution to raising awareness of Louis Pasteur, the Institut Pasteur and its International Network.