The Board of Directors of the Institut Pasteur met on 2 September 2005 with a view to appointing the new Managing Director.
Press release
Paris, september 2, 2005
During its previous meetings the Board of Directors :
- had decided to create a Search Committee in order to receive, attract and then scientifically analyse applications, before drawing up a shortlist of applicants,
- had decided whom this committee would consist of (7 French - including two Pasteur employees - and foreign leading experts in the scientific field), accepted its method of operation and allocated a reference "skills profile" to it,
- had finally, on 8 July this year, validated the shortlist that was proposed by the Search Committee, including the names of Mrs Alice Dautry and Mr Pierre Legrain, and decided to consult with members of the Scientific Committee and departmental managers of the Institut Pasteur about these two individuals, in accordance with Article 9 of the articles of association.
After the Chairman had presented an analysis and briefing of the received recommendations, a major debate ensued.
When the debate closed, the Board of Directors gave its decision about the Chairman’s proposal to appoint Mrs Alice Dautry Managing Director of the Institut Pasteur.
This proposal was adopted with a qualified majority of 2/3 as set out in the article of association.
Mrs Alice Dautry is duly appointed Managing Director of the Institut Pasteur.
She will take up the post on 1st October this year. Until this date, the following person will stand in for the Managing Director: Mr Stewart Cole, Assistant Managing Director, Director - Scientific Affairs.
The Board of Directors:
- would like to emphasise the high personal and scientific calibre of both candidates and its satisfaction in having had to choose between these two individuals whose personal specifications matched very closely the requirements of the post to be filled,
- would like to thank the members of the Search Committee, particularly its Chairman Mr. Jean-Claude Lehmann, for the in-depth work undertaken with an acute sense of responsibility and within a timeframe which was compatible with the Institute’s operating requirements,
- appreciated the calmness which prevailed throughout the procedure and which gave way neither to intervention nor external pressure, and also the remarkable sense of fair play of both applicants,
- is certain that the woman appointed as Managing Director will give fresh impetus to the Institut Pasteur ,
- and will call on all Pasteur employees to demonstrate their team spirit, confidence, dynamism and their sense of responsibility, so that the term of office of Mrs Alice Dautry begins and then proceeds in the most favourable conditions.
Alice Dautry, 55, Doctor of Sciences and Professor at the Institut Pasteur, is a cellular biologist. She currently directs a research unit at the Institut Pasteur associated with the CNRS. She is a member of the Scientific Council of the life sciences department of the CNRS.
She has had dual training: she studied solid-state physics in France and molecular biology in the United States.
Mrs Alice Dautry has made several extended trips to the United States and was a Visiting Scientist at MIT. She came to the Institut Pasteur in 1977.
Since the beginning of her career, she has simultaneously performed research and teaching activities. She is currently a course director at the Institut Pasteur and teacher at the École Polytechnique. She has also performed research evaluation and scientific council duties, at the Institut Pasteur, at the CNRS, and in numerous authoritative bodies in France and abroad.
An author of several publications, her current research concerns the study of immune system receptors and infections due to intracellular bacteria.
Mrs Dautry is "Chevalier de la légion d’honneur"
Contact press
Institut Pasteur
Nadine Peyrolo, Head of Press Office
01 44 38 91 30 - npeyrolo@pasteur.fr
Michèle Gallard, Head of Communication Department
01 44 38 94 81 - mgallard@pasteur.frs-dir.fr