Daniel Choquet

Daniel Choquet (born 23 April 1962) is a French neuroscientist working at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).

Personal life and career

Daniel Choquet is the son of the mathematical physicist Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat and the mathematician Gustave Choquet, and a grandson of the physicist Georges Bruhat. He obtained his bachelor's degree in 1979, followed by a degree in bioengineering from École centrale Paris in 1984. He obtained his P.hD. in 1988 from Pierre and Marie Curie University and studied pharmacology at the Pasteur Institute. That year, he started working for the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). From 1994 to 1996, he was a post-doctoral fellow at Duke University. The following year, in 1997, he was promoted to research director at the CNRS. He is the director of the Bordeaux Imaging Center and the Interdisciplinary Institute for Neuroscience. He was elected as a member of the French Academy of Sciences on 30 November 2010.

Research

Choquet is a biologist, focusing on nanoscopic imaging and the organization of receptors in neurons. His early research included work on the properties of ion channels of B lymphocytes. This research work earned him the CNRS Bronze medal in 1990. During his post-doc at Duke, he discovered that cells can respond and adapt to the mechanical properties of their environment.

Since 1996, he has researched the fundamental properties of the transmission of nerve impulses in the brain and developed new nanoscale imaging techniques. He discovered that receptors move in living neurons and that these movements in and out synapses participate to synaptic plasticity, a phenomenon thought to underlie learning and memory. Choquet's current work involves attempting to understand the role of receptor movements in neurodegenerative diseases. His recent research work has earned him the 2004 CEA Prize and the 2009 CNRS Silver Medal.

Awards

1990: CNRS Bronze medal 1994: Petit-Dormoy prize of the Académie des Sciences 1994: Prize of the "société de secours des amis de la science" 1997: Research prize form the Fondation pour la recherche médicale 2004: Grand prix de l'Académie des Sciences, prize of the CEA 2006: Labeled FRM team by the "Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale" 2007: Laureate of the "Bauer Lectureship award", Brandeis University 2008: Laureate of an "ERC advanced research grant" from the European Commission 2009: Nominated author of the year 2008 by the French Society for Neurosciences 2009: CNRS Silver Medal 2010: Elected member of the French Academy of Sciences, integrative biology section 2011: Laureate of the "Victoires de la médecine 2011" 2012: Nominated "Chevalier de l'ordre des Palmes académiques" 2013 : laureate of an "ERC advanced research grant" from the European Commission 2014: Elected member of EMBO 2015 : elected member of the Academia Europaea 2016 : Nominated "chevalier de l'ordre de la légion d'honneur" 2018 : laureate of an "ERC advanced research grant" from the European Commission 2021 : Nominated "officier de l'ordre des Palmes académiques"