27/05/2016 2 min

Roger Genet appointed Director General of ANSES

Roger Genet has been appointed Director General of the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety, thereby succeeding Marc Mortureux. As Director General of Research and Innovation at the Ministry of Research since March 2012, and a former President of the National Alliance for Environmental Research (AllEnvi), Roger Genet is a scientist who has worked for more than a decade on research and expertise policy, in support of public policymaking, in the areas of health, agriculture and the environment.

Holder of a doctorate in enzymology and protein engineering and an accreditation to conduct research in science from the University of Paris-Sud Orsay, and an engineer from the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, Roger Genet (age 57) devoted a large part of his career to scientific research within the Life Sciences Directorate of the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), which he joined in 1981. Appointed Research Director at the CEA in 2004, he also began teaching, as a professor at the National Institute for Nuclear Sciences and Technology (INSTN) and the University of Paris-Sud Orsay.

In February 2005, Roger Genet joined the office of the Minister of Research as an advisor on life sciences, health and bioethics, before moving back to the CEA in May 2007, as Deputy Director of Life Sciences and Director of the Fontenay-aux-Roses research centre, where he was in charge of the site's conversion to health technologies.

In February 2009, Roger Genet was appointed head of CEMAGREF which became, under his leadership, the National Research Institute of Science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture (IRSTEA) and where he was the organisation's first President. There, he pursued an ambitious strategy to mobilise research in support of public policy for managing water, land and environmental technologies. As such, he served as elected President of the Aquaref consortium, the national reference laboratory for monitoring aquatic environments, between 2009 and 2011. He was also joint author, with the CEO of Ifremer, of a "National Charter for Expertise" that was adopted by all French research operators in 2011.

An advocate of the cooperative approach, he also proposed the founding of the National Alliance for Environmental Research (AllEnvi), which brings together all the French stakeholders in research on water, food and territories, and was its first president from 2010 to 2012. He was also appointed Chairman of the Scientific Board of the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) in 2012.

Since March 2012, he has been Director General of Research and Innovation at the Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research.

Upon his appointment, Roger Genet announced: "ANSES is a great expertise and research agency, respected and recognised, both in France and abroad, for its independence and the quality of its work. This appointment is an honour for me, but also a great responsibility. I will ensure that ANSES remains faithful to this vocation to inform public debate and decision-making independently and on the basis of reference scientific knowledge, the factors guaranteeing our fellow citizens' confidence in us".

Roger Genet is the author of around thirty scientific publications and co-author of six patents for inventions.