François Houllier

Dr. François Houllier is presently the President of Université Sorbonne Paris Cité (USPC), the largest cluster of universities and higher education and research bodies in Paris (http://www.sorbonne-paris-cite.fr). USPC covers the whole spectrum of disciplines: humanities, arts, letters and languages; social sciences; exact sciences and technology; life and health sciences. From July 2012 to July 2016, he was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of INRA, the French National Institute for Agricultural Research. INRA has a national a mandate for research in the field of food, agriculture and environment. From 1998 to 2012, Dr. François Houllier was already with INRA at different positions: he directed a Research Unit in Montpellier, became the Head of the Division of Forests and Natural Environment, then of the newly created Division of Forest, Grassland and Freshwater Ecology; in 2005, he was appointed as Scientific Director for Plant and Plant Products, and in 2010, as Executive Deputy General Director for Science. Dr. François Houllier got a PhD at the University of Lyon in 1986, after graduating from Ecole Polytechnique and ENGREF, the National College for Rural Engineering, Waters and Forests. He served successively as Project leader at the French Forest Survey Service, as a Professor of Forest Biometrics at the College of Forestry in Nancy, and as the Director of the French Institute in Pondicherry (India) in 1994-1997. In 2001-2006, Dr. François Houllier was a member of the Board of the European Forest Institute, which he chaired in 2004-2006 at the period when EFI became a true international organization. In 2008-2012, he chaired the Board of the French Consortium on Forest Ecosystems (GIP ECOFOR). In 2010-2014, he chaired the Steering Committee of the French public-private Genoplante Consortium, then transformed into the Green Biotechnologies Consortium (GIS Biotechnologies vertes). In 2012-2016 he also chaired the Board of AllEnvi, the Alliance in charge of coordinating Environmental Research (Food, Water, Climate, Land) in France. In 2014-2016, he headed the French Delegation at the G20 Meetings of the Agricultural Chief Scientists (MACS).