Lecture on Origins of INSERM, Dec. 17

Pascal Griset

The Office of NIH History and Museum will host a special lecture about the history of INSERM, the French biomedical research funding agency similar to NIH. The speaker is Pascal Griset, professor of modern history organization at Sorbonne Université and Comité pour l’histoire de l’INSERM. His talk is titled “Biomedical Research in France and Its Institutionalization, 1940-1970: At the origins of INSERM.” It will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 17 from 4 to 5 p.m. in Bldg. 10, Rm. 2C116, followed by a reception.

Griset is the co-author of a book on INSERM history, Au coeur du vivant: 50 ans de l’INSERM (At the Heart of Life: 50 Years of INSERM). He will discuss the pre-origins of INSERM in the creation of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in 1939 and then the creation of INSERM itself in 1964. Griset will describe the sociopolitical construction of French research funding and the role played by the United States and, in particular, the Rockefeller Foundation.

Beyond an institutional history, Griset will highlight how the French scientific community has become part of the more global dynamics of the construction of biomedical sciences.