Academia Europaea and Legion of Honor – recognition for Institut Pasteur scientists

 

• Six Institut Pasteur scientists elected as new members of Academia Europaea

Academia Europaea was set up in 1988 in Cambridge as a European non-governmental association for the promotion of education and research. It currently has nearly 3,500 expert members from 35 European countries and 8 non-European countries specializing in a wide variety of fields including social science, medicine, economics, law, literature and mathematics.

Six Institut Pasteur scientists were recently elected as new members of Academia Europaea in recognition of their achievements and their respective contributions to European research:

-    Hervé Bourhy, Head of the Rabies CNR
-    Arnaud Echard, Head of the Membrane Traffic and Cell Division Unit at the Institut Pasteur
-    Louis Lambrechts, Head of the Insect-Virus Interactions Unit
-    Carla Saleh, Head of the Viruses and RNA Interference Unit
-    Olivier Schwartz, Head of the Virus and Immunity Unit
-    Chiara Zurzolo, Head of the Membrane Traffic and Pathogenesis Unit

Find out more about Academia Europaea

 

•    Hervé Bourhy, responsable du CNR rage
•    Arnaud Echard, responsable de l’unité Trafic membranaire et division cellulaire de l’Institut Pasteur
•    Louis Lambrechts, responsable de l’unité interactions virus-insectes
•    Carla Saleh, responsable de l’unité Virus et interférence ARN
•    Olivier Schwartz, responsable de l’unité Virus et immunité
•    Chiara Zurzolo, responsable de l’unité Trafic membranaire et pathogenèse

En savoir plus sur l’Academia Europaea

 

• Margaret Buckingham promoted to the rank of Grand Officier of the Legion of Honor

The list of "civilian promotions" to the Legion of Honor on July 14 included 358 men and women (in equal numbers) from a wide range of sectors, with differing levels of professional responsibility, some known to the public and others not, ranging from magistrates, artists and elected representatives to industry leaders and scientists.

The list of those honored included Margaret Buckingham.

 
Margaret Buckingham, who joined the Institut Pasteur in 1972 as post-doctoral fellow in the
François Gros laboratory, then as a CNRS Research Associate in 1975, is a leading figure in developmental biology research, specializing in muscle and heart formation.

She became a laboratory head in 1987 in the Molecular Genetics of Development Unit and was appointed as a Professor at the Institut Pasteur in 1992, then as a Distinguished Professor in 2009. She was also appointed as a Distinguished Director of Research at the CNRS in 2008. Margaret Buckingham led 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. She has also worked on heart formation, identifying an important source of heart stem cells - the second heart field.

Margaret Buckingham has been a member of the French Academy of Sciences since 2005, a member of the US 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 (CCNE) 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. She is actually Honorary Director of the developmental biology and stem cells department and chair of the Institut Pasteur's Ethics Committee.