A specialist in infectious diseases from the Mediterranean University Hospital Institute Infection (IHU) in Marseille, Pierre-Edouard Fournier, has been proposed by a scientific committee to succeed the controversial Professor Didier Raoult at the head of this medical research organization.
“This proposal is made, after the committee has carried out a broad examination of the people, candidates or not, who may have the necessary qualities to lead the IHU, then after hearing the candidates it had selected”, announced Wednesday the president of the “research committee”, Louis Schweitzer, in a press release sent to AFP.
A board meeting on July 13
This recommendation will be presented at a meeting of the board of directors on July 13, which will have to appoint the successor to the controversial Marseille professor. A graduate of the Faculty of Medicine of Marseille, Pierre-Edouard Fournier defended a thesis in 1999 under the direction of Professor Raoult, devoted to the study of rickettsioses, intracellular bacteria at the origin of typhus in particular.
Within the IHU, he is part of the Vitrome team (Vectors – tropical and Mediterranean infections) which monitors infectious diseases at the local level but also among travellers. He is also responsible for the sequencing platforms and the biobank of the IHU. “He presented a project that leads to a profound change in the IHU,” Louis Schweitzer told AFP.