French Policy Post Available to Purchase

Ketty Schwartz stepped into France’s top research policy post, director of research in the research ministry, on 2 May. In announcing her appointment, Minister Roger-Gèrard Schwartzenberg said he tapped Schwartz because she is a top-ranking researcher in the life sciences and because he is committed to bringing more women into top-level jobs. As Schwartzenberg is not a scientist, Schwartz is expected to wield considerable influence in forming French research policy. Schwartz moved to the ministry from Paris’s Pitiè-Salpètrière hospital, where she headed a research division in genetics, physiopathology, and therapies for skeletal and cardiac muscle. She succeeds geophysicist Vincent Courtillot, who is returning to research and teaching at the University Denis Diderot and the Institut de Physique du Globe in Paris.