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Home > All the news > INRA Awards > 2011 INRA Awards

Winners of the 2011 INRA awards

Laurent Wauquiez, Minister of Higher Education and Research, opened the sixth INRA Awards ceremony on December, 7, 2011 in Paris in the presence of Frédéric Dardel, Université Paris V Descartes, President of the Scientific Advisory Board of INRA and of the INRA Awards jury; Serge Poignant, Deputy in the French National Assembly, President of the Economic Affairs Commission; Claude Birraux, Deputy in the French National Assembly, President of the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices; Guy Vasseur, President of the Assembly of the Chambers of Agriculture and Jean-Yves Le Déaut, Deputy in the French National Assembly, Vice-President of the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices.

The Agricultural Research Award for scientific excellence, attributed by an international jury, acknowledges the work and career of an internationally-renowned researcher who has made an exceptional contribution to the influence of agricultural research.


Antoine Kremer, the Agricultural Research Award 2011 © INRA, C. Slagmulder

Barking up the right tree

A pioneer in his field, Antoine Kremer initiated Europe-wide forestry research as early as the 1980s based on population genetics and evolutionary biology. Using a combined historical and genetic approach on a sample of 2,600 forests, Antoine Kremer reconstructed oak distribution scenarios in Europe and uncovered the adaptation and migration mechanisms of forest species. He later launched Evoltree, a European network of excellence which he now coordinates. Dr Kremer’s work gained international recognition in 2006 when he won the Marcus Wallenberg Prize, the “Nobel Prize in the world of wood”. Antoine Kremer has published over 180 articles. He is Research Director at BIOGECO (BIOdiversity, Genes and ECOsystems), a Joint Research Unit at INRA, Bordeaux. In 2011 he was named coordinator of a laboratory of excellence (LabEx) on the evolution, adaptation and governance of continental and coastal ecosystems, financed by the French Stimulus Initiative.

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The Young Researcher Award is attributed by an international jury as recompense for the work of a young researcher recently recruited at INRA.


Anne-Célia Disdier, the Young Researcher Award 2011 © INRA, G. Paillard

From trading places to teamwork without borders

Anne-Célia Disdier’s work focuses on the effects of tariff and non-tariff measures such as health, phytosanitary and technical regulations on commercial trade and well-being. A researcher in Economics at the Paris-Jourdan Economic Sciences Joint Research Unit of the Paris School of Economics (PSE), she has published over a dozen articles in international academic journals, including the Review of Economics and Statistics and the American Journal of Agricultural Economics. Dr Disdier has participated in several international symposiums on economics and contributes to TradeAG and AgFoodTrade, two European research projects dealing with agricultural and agrifood trade.

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The Engineer’s Award distinguishes the remarkable contribution of an engineer to the development of research methods, the transfer of research results or to research administration.


André Fauré, the Engineer’s Award 2011 © INRA, C. Slagmulder

Keeping it creative

Director of research support services at INRA Toulouse, André Fauré is the brains behind the scene. He designs tools, applications and solutions to optimize the centre’s administration. After starting his career in aquaculture research, he later became manager of an experimental unit in aquaculture and secretary general at INRA Tours and INRA Toulouse. He later led the implementation of INRA’s national procurement policy. Mr Fauré excels in his ability to develop innovative ways to modernise administrative services and mobilise teams to apply these new solutions.

> Read his portrait
> View the video (in French)

The Research Support Award acknowledges the exemplary contribution of research technicians to providing research support.


André Moretti, the Research Support Award 2011 © INRA, G. Paillard

Tried and tested tomato expert

André Moretti has spent 40 years studying ways to improve plant varieties at INRA’s Fruit and Vegetable Genetics and Breeding Unit in Avignon. As assistant engineer, he has helped discover new sources of resistance to several tomato diseases and ways of introducing these features into lines obtained by inter-species crossing. These resources form the basis of research programmes on disease resistance in tomatoes. His recent work on this fruit and on the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana contributed to the discovery of an original mechanism found in plants which makes them resistant to viruses. His work and expertise have contributed significantly to the international reputation of INRA-Avignon.

> Read his portrait (in French)
> View the video (in French)


Agnès Thomas, the Research Support Award 2011 © INRA, C. Slagmulder

In good measure

Agnès Thomas is an assistant engineer with the AMUVI team (Animal, Muscle, Viande) at the Herbivore Research Unit in Theix near Clermont-Ferrand, specialised in the detailed analysis of nutrition in productive ruminants. She oversees studies of short-chain fatty acids in blood and long-chain fatty acids in meat products and their oxidised by-products using different techniques (e.g. liquid and gas chromatography, spectrophotometry). Ms Thomas has personally written two methodological studies on this subject. Committed to improving measurement techniques in research, Agnès Thomas actively promotes INRA’s Quality Policy and recently helped implement measurement method monitoring procedures. Ms Thomas became a consulting auditor for the INRA Quality Reference System in 2009.

> Read her portrait (in French)
> View the video (in French)