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Confirmed Speakers

Dr. Jean-Claude Worms, CEO, European Science Foundation, Strasbourg, France

Jean-Claude Worms is the Chief Executive of the European Science Foundation (ESF). He holds a PhD in physics (astronomy and space science) from the University Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris 6), has over fifteen years of research experience in international space research projects, and20+ years of experience in research management and strategic planning, assessing programmatic aspects of agencies and research councils, coordinating policy and strategy at national and international level, and dealing with officials, executives and scientific interest groups worldwide. He is involved in European Space Agency high-level science advisory structures and has participated with an observer status to ESA’s Ministerial Conferences since 1999. He is also a member of the European Commission Space Advisory Group and he co-chairs the Science Advisory Group of the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG). Since 2011 he has been heavily involved in defining a change management model for the ESF in the context of transitioning to a science services based entity, which is effective since January 2016.

Ms. Julia Boman, Science officer, European Science Foundation, Strasbourg, France

Julia Boman is a Science Officer at the European Science Foundation responsible for the development of the ESF’s career tracking and evaluation services.  Among her previous duties at the ESF, she was responsible for the development and the conduct of the peer review processes for a transnational research funding programme in the Humanities – HERA, “Humanities in the European Research Area” (www.heranet.info). Julia is regularly involved in the various ESF peer review missions and has also coordinated two ESF’s two evaluation studies – the evaluation of the strategy, funding portfolio and processes of the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund and the Research Council of Lithuania. Furthermore, Julia has also served as the scientific coordinator for the ESF Science Review Groups for Humanities and Social Sciences. Julia has a BA in English Language and Literature and an MA in Political Science from the University of Tartu, Estonia, and has done Ph.D. studies at the University of Strasbourg and the University of Tartu, Political Science, conducting research on the topic of cross-border cooperation at the EU external borders. Before working for the ESF, she has done consultancy and project management work for the Council of Europe and worked for an international FP6 research project at the University of Tartu.

Ms. Sarah Blackford, Head of Education & Public Affairs, Society for Experimental Biology, Lancaster, UK

Sarah Blackford (BSc, MA) is a professional academic career specialist with a background in bioscience research and scientific publishing. With 15 years’ experience delivering a wide range of career support to PhD students and early career researchers, Sarah runs specialized career development workshops and offers one-to-one guidance and coaching across Europe and in the US. Her training is based on her book, “Career planning for research bioscientists”, published in 2013, and includes topics such as self-awareness, making informed career choices, the non-academic job market and finding opportunities, networking and communication, CV writing and successful interview technique. Sarah believes that effective personal career development lies at the heart of a successful and fulfilling career. Much of her advice and resources are published on her blog, www.biosciencecareers.org.

Dr. Albert Weixlbaumer, Principal Invesigator, IGBMC, Strasbourg, France

Dr. Albert Weixlbaumer was born and raised in Austria and moved to Vienna to study Biology with an emphasis on Genetics and Biochemistry. He then moved to Cambridge, UK to do his PhD in the laboratory of Dr. Venki Ramakrishnan on a scholarship of the Austrian Academy of Sciences where he worked on the mechanism of protein synthesis using X-ray crystallography. After obtaining his PhD, he moved to the Rockefeller University in New York, USA to work as a postdoc with Prof. Seth A. Darst and study the mechanism of transcription. He obtained an Anderson Cancer Center postdoctoral fellowship in his first year and was an HFSP long-term postdoctoral fellow thereafter. He proposed a project in collaboration with Prof. Robert Landick at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, to look at transcriptional pausing. In 2013 he applied for independent group leader positions and accepted an offer obtained from the IGBMC. He moved to France in April 2014 and obtained start-up funding through an ATIP-Avenir start-up grant (CNRS/Inserm) as well as funding from the European Union (Marie-Curie Career Integration Grant, ERC Starting Grant). He applied for permanent positions and accepted the offer obtained from Inserm in 2014. Since his move and together with his team, he setup the lab here at IGBMC to work on the regulation of transcription.

Dr. Jean-Christophe Dantonel, Health and Biotechnology Director, French Governement, Paris, France

Dr Jean-Christophe Dantonel obtained his PhD in 1999 in the IGBMC. He obtained a position as a researcher in INSERM and worked several years as a project manager. He entered the governement in 2007 as a counselor at the ministry and is now director of the health and biotechnology programme.

Dr. Fay Christodoulou, Founder & Chief Scientific Officer, Miroculus, San Francisco

After completion of PhD from EMBL and having gained some experience on scientific writing, project management and spending few years as a postdoctoral fellow in Greece, Fay setup her own company called Microlucus in San Francisco which provides novel solutions to Academic Institutions, Genomic Research Centers, Pharma, Biotech and Diagnostics companies, so they can drastically improve their ability to diagnose, monitor and treat disease.

Dr. Sarah Rodrigues, Business Developer in AgileBio & Consultant  for Cheecky Scientist, Paris, France

Sarah Rodrigues is working as a consultant for the Cheeky Scientist Association, involved in training PhDs to lead them into successful industrial professionals. She is also working as a Business Developer in AgileBio. She obtained her PhD in Hematology, Oncology and Biotechnologies from Université Paris Diderot, France. 

Dr. Maria Manuela Nogueira, Scientific Officer, European Institute for Systems Biology and Medicine, Lyon, France

Maria Manuela Nogueira obtained her PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology (Oncogenesis option) at the Faculty of Medicine of the Paris XI University. She was (senior) science officer in biomedical sciences at the European Science Foundation in Strasbourg for 6 years where she coordinated various European Collaborative Research (EUROCORES) projects and Research Networking Programmes (RNPs), supervised the publication of various science policy reports, was actively involved in peer review activities and was the project manager of a career tracking pilot project. She joined the EISBM in July 2015 as scientific officer.

Dr. Audrey Kauffmann, Group leader, Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Basel, Switzerland

Audrey Kauffmann finished her PhD at the Goustave Roussy Cancer Institute in Paris in 2006 in the field of bioinformatics and cancer biology. She then worked at the Europeen Bioinformatics Institute in the UK and the Bergonie Cancer Institute in Bordeaux before joining Novartis 6 years ago. She is now a bioinformatics group leader in the oncology department at Novartis since 3 years.

Dr. Franck Di Scala, Account Manager, Bio-Rad Laboratories

Dr. Franck Di Scala obtained his PhD at the Louis Pasteur University of Strasbourg and University of Basel. During these years he set up a French-Swiss collaboration and managed two research projects on genetic screening. He also draw up an industrial contract for a clinical study. During his PhD, he published 2 articles in specialized journals, had 6 international publications and obtained 2 patents. After his PhD he studied at the graduate school of business of Grenoble. During his internship, he worked with a senior account manager in order to learn the sales techniques in the field and he developed strategies to optimize a sales territory. He is currently account manager at the Bio-Rad Laboratories. He is developing and promoting sales of instrumentation, reagents and services, managing a portfolio of over 1,400 clients at a high technical level in academic, hospital, and industrial research laboratories, mainly in the Northeast region of France.