Symposium's organization > Organization committee

Pascal Aventurier (Rsponsible for Scientific and technical information service, IRD, France)

Pascal Aventurier holds a DEA in information science from the University of Grenoble II and a master's degree in mathematics applied to social sciences from the University of the Sorbonne in Paris (ex Paris VII). He is in charge of the scientific information department of the IRD (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement) which counts 15 people and implements the open science policy of the IRD in terms of publications and research data. He is also coordinator of the ANR Bridge project on interoperability, FAIRisation and governance of research data between three research organizations (2019-2022). He is an open science expert for Knowledge Exchange as well as an open science expert in the REISO of the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation. In Brazil, he participates in the research group of the DRIADE network on preservation and archiving of digital data - IBICT (Brasilia) and the CINDLAB network (open science and science with and for society). Finally, he teaches research data management since 2013 at the University of Montpellier and other institutions.

Perrsonal webpage

Cécile Boussou-Pelissier (Cirad, Scientific and technical information service, France)

Cécile is responsible for digital mediation and IST communication at Cirad. Her missions are to design and run websites to facilitate the transfer of knowledge and know-how in IST; to develop CIRAD's IST communication strategy; to run professional communities and projects at CIRAD and in partnership. Cécile promotes CIRAD's results on open access.

Personal webpage

Hugo Catherine (IRD, Open Science Mission, France)

Hugo Catherine is a project manager at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement. Trained as a librarian, between 2016 and 2021 he supported the development of open science systems in the four universities of the Occitanie-Est site. He joined the IRD in 2021 where his main mission is to develop the institute's digital expertise network. At the national level, he participates in the activities of the open science working group of the Couperin consortium.

He coordinates the activities of the organising committee of the "Science ouverte au Sud" symposium.

Personal webpage

Marie-Claude Deboin (Cirad, Responsible for the Scientific and technical information service, France)

With a dual scientific (Masters in organism and population biology) and technical (DESS in documentary computing) academic background, Marie-Claude has been CIRAD's Scientific and Technical Information Delegate since 2007. Her mission is to propose to CIRAD's management the elements of the institutional strategy and policy on scientific and technical information (STI); to draw up the multi-year roadmap for the STI delegation (Dist) and to report on the results obtained for the acquisition, dissemination and analysis of scientific production and for the use of research data, whether in the framework of internal projects or in partnership.
Marie-Claude is the author of several didactic sheets on the CIRAD CoopIST website.

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Jean Christophe Desconnets is a research engineer at IRD. He is a geomatician in the joint research unit ESPACE-DEV.  He has two complementary skills. The first is a competence in water sciences (PhD in water sciences, University of Montpellier, 1994) and the other in computer science (MSc in computer science, University of Montpellier, 2000). From 2018 to 2020, he led the scientific mission "Digital Infrastructures and Data" at IRD. Currently, director of the IRD Open Science mission, his role is to coordinate the implementation of the institute's open science policy. He also participates in the technical direction of the national research infrastructure Data Terra for which he brings his expertise in interoperability. Finally, from 2019 to 2021, he piloted the "generic service for hosting and disseminating simple data" working group on behalf of the MESRI Open Science Committee.

Institutional personal webpage

Caroline Doucouré (IRD, Scientific and technical information service, France)

Caroline Doucouré is a member of the "Data" team of the IRD's Scientific and Technical Information Service, which supports IRD scientists and their partners in the management of research data. In particular, she participated in the creation of the Datasuds data repository, inaugurated in 2019. She organises and runs training courses on research data.

In addition, she leads the IRD DMP multi-service working group which supports scientists in drafting their data management plans.

Sophie Fortuno (Cirad, Directorate-General for Research and Strategy, France)

Sophie Fortuno has been in charge of open science and research data at CIRAD since September 2020. A research engineer in computer science, Sophie Fortuno joined CIRAD's TETIS laboratory in 2013 (2013-2020). Her main activity is related to the field of Information Science, working on Open Research Data, Data Science and Information Retrieval. From 2013 to 2018, she coordinated the Digital Scientific Heritage project on CIRAD data and led the research data warehouse project of the institution. She is an expert member of the Collège données de la recherche du COmité pour la Science Ouverte du MESRI (2018 to 2020). Previous professional activities: From 2003 to 2013, Sophie Fortuno was responsible for the deployment of institutional NICT projects within CIRAD's Information Systems Department.

Institutional personal webpage

Hanka Hensens (IRD, Scientific and technical information service, France)

She is a member of the research data team of the IRD's Scientific and Technical Information Service and webmaster of the IRD Data website. She has been supporting scientists in the drafting of data management plans and has been organising and leading training courses on data since 2016. She is also in charge of the IRD documentation centre in Montpellier.

Norbert Hounkonnou (ANSALB, Bénin)

Mahouton Norbert Hounkonnou is a full Professor of Mathematics & Physics at the University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin Republic. His works deal with noncommutative and nonlinear mathematics, and complex systems. He serves as member and associate editor of editorial boards for renowned journals and book series in mathematics and mathematical physics, including the Editorial Boards of Mathematics in Mind, Springer, Fields Cognitive Science Network, the Peer Community In (PCI) Neuroscience, etc. His membership extends to InterAcademy Partnership Advisory Committee and Science Education Programme (IAP SEP), the International Association of Mathematical Physics, American Mathematical Society, London Mathematical Society, Society  for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM), Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), African Academy of Sciences (AAS), The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), Scientific Council of the Centre International de Mathématiques Pures et Appliquées (CIMPA), as well as other renowned learned societies. He is the current President of the Network of African Science Academies (NASAC), former President of the Benin National Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters (2015-2020).

Institutional personal webpage

Tanguy Lafarge (Cirad, Délégation aux dispositifs de recherche et de partenariat, France)

Tanguy Lafarge, Director of Research at CIRAD, has been the Delegate for the 22 research and training partnership schemes coestablished, co-governed and co-run by CIRAD and its partners in the South since 2019. He is working to boost this network of schemes in accordance with the 2021-2026 Roadmap that he has developed and its five ambitions: consolidating the schemes, implementing diploma courses, structuring dialogue with beneficiaries, stimulating intra-connection, and increasing visibility. Beyond their nature as inter-institutional alliances, these schemes favour open science, notably by responding to the SDGs, conveying their innovations to beneficiaries and organising public webinars and forums. Tanguy Lafarge received his PhD in ecophysiology from the University of Paris XI Orsay (1998). After a one-year postdoc in Australia and two years of teaching at the University of Montpellier, he was hired by CIRAD in 2002 to work as a researcher at IRRI in the Philippines, then as Deputy Department Director. Back in Montpellier in 2010, Tanguy Lafarge took charge of the ecophysiology research team and the scientific coordinator of UMR AGAP for a 4-year term.

Nazaire Padonou (Chairman of ANSALB, Bénin)

Professor Emeritus of the National Universities of Benin, Nazaire Padonou is a doctor by training, former hospital intern and former assistant head of clinic at the University of Dakar. Registered in 1980, in 1989 on the list of aptitude of the African and Malagasy Council for Higher Education (CAMES) for the functions of full Professor, he was appointed Professor Emeritus of the universities upon his retirement on October 1, 2009.

In addition, he was Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences in Cotonou from 1987 to 1996 and then Dean from 1999 to 2003. He is a member of the French Association of Surgery -AFC- (1979); Fellow of the West African College of Surgeons-WACS- (1981); founding member and 1st President of the Benino-Togolese Society of Digestive Surgery-SBTCD-(1995); founding member and 1st President of the French-speaking African Society of Digestive Surgery-SAFCHID-(2002); founding member and 1st Secretary General of the French-speaking African Association of Surgery-ACAF-(2004).

Founding member of the National Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters of Benin-ANSALB (2011), he's an Officer in the French Order of Academic Palms (1990); Knight in the National Order of Benin (2001), then Officer (2008); Knight in the CAMES Order of Academic Palms (2006).

François Sabot (IRD, Deputy of the Open Science Mission, France)

From an initial formation in Molecular Genetics and Physiology, I went during my PhD on Transposable Elements, working on large plant genomes at INRA, France. During my Post-Doc at university of Helsinki, I worked on mechanics, structure and evolution of TEs, in lab then in bioinformatics and NGS. My current research interest in the French National institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) is the Pangenomics modification during speciation/domestication, especially regarding TEs, in various genomes. In this regard, I explore with my team the pangenome in all aspects: creation, modification, graph theory, vizualisation, and so on...
In parallel, I spent (and continue to) large efforts on open science, through open source development, open access publication and open data dissemination, as the deputy director of the Open Science mission at IRD.

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