Place
and date of birth : |
Paris, 1942 |
Marital
status : |
Married, three children |
Distinctions
: |
Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur Officier de l'Ordre National du Mérite Chevalier des Palmes Académiques |
Alain Pompidou has had a long and distinguished academic and political career. He took doctorates in medicine, science and biology and from 1974 to 2004 was professor of histology, embryology and cytogenetics in the medical faculty of the University of Paris. Until 2004 he was also director of the laboratory of the Cochin-St Vincent de Paul-La Roche Guyon Hospital in Paris and chairman of the hospital group's advisory board. At the same time, Mr Pompidou served on the consultative and scientific committees of numerous national, European and international organisations, including the WHO, UNESCO and the European Commission. From 1990 to 1998 he was vice-president of the Ethics Committee of the Human Genome Organisation (HUGO). Between 1986 and 1997 he acted as special adviser to the French prime minister, the minister of research and higher education and the minister of health. As a member of the European Parliament from 1989 to 1999, he was particularly concerned with the EU framework programmes for research, with the preparation of the Directive on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions, and with bioethical issues. From 1994 to 1999 he was president of the European Parliament's Scientific and Technological Options Assessment Office. Since 2004, Mr Pompidou has been a member of UNESCO's World Ethics Commission, Vice-Chair as from 2006 ; Chair as from 2008 ; from 1999 to 2004 he served as spokesman on research and space policy on the French Economic and Social Council. From 2000 to 2004 he was a founder member of France's newly created National Academy of Technologies and became Vice-Chair in 2006, then President in 2009. He is also the author of numerous scientifics publications (1967-2001), articles and monographs on science, ethics and society, and on biomedical ethics. His book "Souviens-toi de l'Homme : l'éthique, la vie, la mort" was published by Éditions Payot in 1989.