Anne Peyroche

Anne Peyroche (born Anne Marthe Alice Smal) is a French biologist and geneticist. From October 2017 to January 2018, she acted as interim president of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) until fraud allegations were made.

Biography Anne Peyroche studied at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Cachan and graduated in 1994 with a major in biochemistry and biological engineering. In 1995, she obtained a DEA in cellular and molecular biology. She joined the Pierre-et-Marie-Curie University and in 1999, she defended her thesis on the exchange factors of the G ARF protein involved in intracellular trafficking.

Administrative functions In May 2014, she joined the Secretary of State for Higher Education and Research as an advisor in charge of research and advised ministers Geneviève Fioraso and Thierry Mandon. She was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff in charge of research in September 2015. Deputy Director General for Science at the CNRS on 15 January 2016, and interim president of the CNRS replacing Alain Fuchs on 24 October 2017.

Fraud allegations On 19 January 2018, the CEA opened an internal investigation about suspicions of manipulation in the figures of five of her scientific articles. In November 2018, the laboratory notebooks and the hard disks were appraised and the CEA experts concluded that certain allegations were serious. In January 2018, the CEA appointed the immunologist Jean-François Bach, member of the national ethics advisory committee, as chairman of the commission of inquiry responsible for evaluating the five incriminated articles in an advisory capacity. Beginning October 2018, the newspapers L'Express and Le Monde, alleged that the report of the French Academy of Sciences which confirms suspicions of scientific misconduct had been "buried" since May. The CEA considered the procedure is suspended pending the hearing of the researcher. The ministry "denies the allegations of L'Express, which affirms that the minister Frédérique Vidal would have asked not to sanction Anne Peyroche," whereas Sylvestre Huet, member of the Council of scientific integrity, writes to Frédérique Vidal that an "intolerable suspicion of intervention" and obstruction of the process of dealing with the fault committed, sends "a disastrous message to the scientific community." In 2020, the CEA was scheduled to publish the full report of the Committee chaired by Jean-François Bach and set up to examine this file. The CEA concluding that "wrongful negligence constitutes breaches of scientific integrity likely to damage the image of the organization and more generally of research."

Personal life She is married to researcher Gérald Peyroche and has two children. 2011: Knight of the National Order of Merit