Fabienne Casoli and Jean-Pascal Le Franc have been appointed Assistant Directors of the Strategy, Programmes and International Relations directorate (DSP) of French space agency CNES. Reporting directly to DSP Director Thierry Duquesne, they will head up the agency’s Scientific and International Relations departments respectively.
The new appointments are due to the departure from CNES of Richard Bonneville—the DSP’s former Assistant Director—at the age of 63. Mr Bonneville is a graduate of l’École Normale Supérieure, a certified professor of physics and a Doctor of Science. Marking the event, CNES President Jean-Yves Le Gall said: “I would like to pay a heartfelt tribute to Richard Bonneville for the huge and valuable contribution he has made during his 30 years at CNES, which has benefited the entire space-science community.”
Fabienne Casoli (55) is a graduate of l’École Normale Supérieure and a certified professor of physics, with a PhD in Astrophysics. She has in turn been Vice-President of the Paris Observatory (1991-2001), Assistant Scientific Director of the CNRS/INSU* space sciences department (2001-2003), President of the young researcher and general programmes of the French national research institute’s “Space and Geo-environmental Sciences” committee (2005-2006), Director of France’s space astrophysics institute (2006-2007),and Project Manager for Europe’s ASTRONET consortium (2005-2007). She joined CNES in 2007, as the head of its Space, Microgravity and Exploration Sciences team within the DSP–of which she now becomes Assistant Director responsible for the Scientific department of CNES.
Jean-Pascal Le Franc (56) graduated in engineering from l’École Centrale de Paris. He started his career as science attaché to the French Embassy in South Korea, before joining CNES in 1982 where he occupied various positions at head office relating to international and European affairs and to dealings with subsidiaries. In 1989, he was appointed as technical adviser to the cabinet of Hubert Curien—the French Minister for Research and Technology and subsequently for Research and Space. In 1994, he became Director of Development of the “Aeronautics and Space” sector at the CECAR group—France’s first insurance broker to cover industrial special risks. He returned to CNES in 1997 as Strategy Officer, before becoming Assistant Director of International Relations and then, in 2004, head of the European Affairs service of the DSP—of which he now becomes Assistant Director responsible for the International Relations department of CNES.
*CNRS: the French national scientific research centre
INSU: the French national institute for universe sciences
CNES press contacts
Pascale Bresson Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 75 39 pascale.bresson@cnes.fr
Alain Delrieu Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 74 04 alain.delrieu@cnes.fr
Julien Watelet Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 78 37 julien.watelet@cnes.fr
www.cnes.fr/presse
