The Élysée Palace announced on Thursday thatEmmanuel Macron was considering appointing Thierry Dauxois as president of the CNRS, France's main public research organization. Currently director of the CNRS Institute of Physics, the researcher could succeed Antoine Petit at the head of an institution that employs nearly 33.000 people and oversees more than 1.100 laboratories in France and abroad.
The nomination proposed by the head of state must now be examined by the relevant committees of the National Assembly and the Senate, in accordance with the procedure laid down by the Constitution. According to the Élysée Palace, this proposal was made on the recommendation of the government.
A physics specialist already well established at the CNRS
A former student of the École normale supérieure de Lyon and a PhD in physics, Thierry Dauxois has worked at the CNRS since the 1990s. A specialist in nonlinear and statistical physics, he directed the physics laboratory of the ENS de Lyon between 2012 and 2020 before becoming vice-president of research for the institution, then director of the CNRS Institute of Physics in 2021.
Several laboratories and scientific leaders have been warning for months about the consequences of budget cuts and the difficulties in funding certain research programs. The future president of the CNRS will notably have to manage the challenges related to scientific attractiveness, international competition, and the funding of public research.
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