Marion Guillou

Marion Guillou
President of the École Polytechnique
In office
2008–2013
Preceded by Yannick d'Escatha
Succeeded by Jacques Biot
Personal details
Born (1954-09-17) 17 September 1954
Marseille, France
Nationality French
Alma mater École Polytechnique
AgroParisTech

Marion Guillou (born 17 September 1954 in Marseille, France) is a French agronomist specialized in global food security.

Guillou recently wrote proposals for the French government on the agro-ecological transition[1][2] (June 2013) and on the organization of the French food safety public services (June 2014).

Early life and education

Guillou completed her engineering training at École Polytechnique (promotion X1973), and then specialized in water engineering at École nationale du génie rural, des eaux et des forêts (ENGREF, now known as AgroParisTech). She completed a PhD in physico-chemistry of biological processes at Nantes University (UA CNRS).

Career

Food sciences

Guillou worked on food processes and invented a technique to monitor continuously the bio transformations of food products using physical chemistry sensors such as Nuclear Magnetic low resolution Resonance (NMR).

Food safety

She was in charge of the food safety directorate in France from 1996 to 2000. She had to manage the Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) crisis, also known as the mad-cow disease, and to propose the new French food safety organization (1999 law on food safety).

Research management

From 1986 to 1989, Guillou was Regional Delegate for Research and Technology in the Region Pays de la Loire. From 2000 to 2012, she was first CEO, then President and CEO of the French National Institute for Agronomic Research (Institut national de la recherche agronomique) where she prioritized research on agriculture, food and environment. She widened the scope of research topics towards global matters. She put in place interdisciplinary meta-programs, for instance on integrated plant protection and consumer practices.

From 2008 to 2013, Guillou was the chair of the Board of the prestigious École Polytechnique (l'X) and during her mandate, Ecole Polytechnique put a greater emphasis on the scientific and technological training, as well as the innovative management and the cooperation with industry. The creation of a new research center on interfaces between biology and engineering sciences was decided and financed and the organization of the Ecole Polytechnique was reformed.

Global involvement

Guillou founded the Joint Programming Initiative on agriculture and climate change [3] with British colleagues and chaired it during the first three years(2010-2013). This initiative, FACCEJPI, now gathers 21 European countries and links at international level with AGMIP and CCAFS.

Other activities

Corporate boards

Non-profit organizations

Past memberships

  • Member of the committee writing the white paper on French foreign policy
  • Member of the Attali Committee to find new avenues to foster French economic growth
  • Member of the Juppe-Rocard Committee on the Future Investments
  • Member of the International Commission on Food Security and Climate Change chaired by Sir John Beddington

Publications

  • Grenelle Committee on Research and Innovation (2008)
  • The World's Challenge (Quae 2012) (English version) [8] or 9 Milliards d'hommes à nourrir (French version)[9]
  • The role for scientists in tackling food insecurity and climate change (BioMed Central, 2011) [10]
  • What next after Durban to active a secure food world ? (Science, January 2012-Vol335 no.6066) [11]
  • Achieving food security in the face of climate change: Summary for policy makers from the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change [12]
  • Report to the French government on the Agro-ecological transition (June 2013)
  • Report to the French government on the policy of food safety (June 2014) [13]

References

  1. ↑ (in French)The agro_ecology project: towards doubly efficient agriculture that reconciles competitiveness with respect for the environment (French version) Archived 2013-10-04 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ The agro_ecology project: towards doubly efficient agriculture that reconciles competitiveness with respect for the environment (English version)
  3. ↑ (in French)FACCEJPI - official website
  4. ↑ Apave - corporate website
  5. ↑ Board of Directors French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).
  6. ↑ Agreenium - official website
  7. ↑ Sciences-Po Foundation (FNSP)
  8. ↑ The World's Challenge: Feeding 9 billion people (Quae website)
  9. ↑ (in French)9 Milliards d'hommes à nourrir (Amazon link)
  10. ↑ The role for scientists in tackling food insecurity and climate change
  11. ↑ What next after Durban to active a secure food world ? (Science, Jan 2012)
  12. ↑ Report on Achieving food security in the face of climate change: Summary for policy makers from the Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change Archived 2013-12-27 at the Wayback Machine.
  13. ↑ (in French)The policy of food safety: diagnosis and proposals Archived 2015-01-11 at the Wayback Machine.
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