Biography
François Taddei, co-founder and president of the Learning Planet Institute, is an internationally renowned researcher.
Convinced that the future of learning must be co-constructed with learners, he explores educational transitions and «planetizenship” (planetary citizenship) to learn how to take care of oneself, others and the planet.
He advocates large-scale collaboration to co-construct, with all stakeholders - from young people to the’UNESCO and the’United Nations University (UNU) - a Learning Planet Academy, technology-driven and rooted in interdisciplinary science.
Its objective is not to train the best students from world, but the best for the world, developing their capacity to act and their skills to take care of the planet's common goods and learn to be “the change they want to see in the world”.
From CRI to Learning Planet Institute
Passionate about educating young people, François Taddei co-founded the Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire (CRI) in Paris in 2006, whose mission is to train the next generation of scientists working at the interface of life sciences, learning and digital technologies. In 2021, the CRI became the Learning Planet Institute.
- François Taddei is founder and president of the Learning Planet Institute (formerly the Centre de Recherches Interdisciplinaires - CRI).
- An internationally renowned researcher in evolutionary systems biology, he now devotes his time to the sciences of learning and teaching.
- François Taddei advocates large-scale collaboration to build - with the support, in particular, of UNESCO and the United Nations University (UNU) - a learning planet and the development of learning communities working together to find sustainable solutions in the Education and Health sectors, as well as for the realization of the Sustainable Development Objectives (SDGS).
External collaborations
- In 2020, François Taddei spearheaded the creation of Challenge Institute (CRI/Learning Planet Institute - Université Paris Cité), which aims to prototype a learning university model to meet the major global challenges of today and tomorrow. He believes that by fostering diversity, trust, exploration, co-creation and collective intelligence at multiple scales, universities can catalyze the emergence of new solutions to the personal, collective and global challenges identified by students. In this way, they can facilitate cooperation and invite all players to become aware of the complexity of our challenges, to redefine problems, to reflect on the applications and implications of their ideas, and to find innovative solutions.
- Alongside the Learning Planet Institute, François Taddei also runs the Institut Des Défis.
- François Taddei has also benefited from research chairs funded by Orange and Axa, as well as foundations such as the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation. Since 2014, he has also been co-director of the UNESCO Chair in Learning Sciences«, Université Paris Cité, which aims to promote an integrated system of research, training, information and documentation activities in the field of educational sciences, research and foresight in education.
Find out more about the “Learning Sciences” Chair”
Education - Training
After obtaining a degree in general sciences - specializing in physics and biology - from the’École Polytechnique, François Taddei became a senior civil servant with the ministry of agriculture before taking a doctorate in genetics, working with Miroslav Radman on the molecular causes and evolutionary consequences of changes in mutation rates.
After his postdoctoral training with John Maynard Smith, His research team has studied the evolution and molecular mechanisms of cooperation, genetic changes, gene expression errors, pathogenicity, antibiotic resistance and aging in E. coli. He was the first to study aging in this model organism, and revealed these processes using microfluidic and systems biology approaches. His work has been widely published in general scientific journals and has won him several awards.
- 1999: Habilitation to direct research, University of Paris XI. Maintaining genome integrity and expression, medical and evolutionary implications.
- 1991-1995: PhD in genetics, Université Paris XI: Environment and control of genetic variability in E. coli. Obtained with highest distinction.
- 1990 - 1991: Diplôme d'études supérieures de génétique cellulaire et moléculaire, Universités Paris VI et XI, Professeurs P. Slonimski et JL. Rossignol. Obtained with highest distinction.
- 1989 - 1991: École Nationale du Génie Rural et des Eaux et Forêts (ENGREF).
- 1986-1989: École Polytechnique, specializing in physics and biology.
- 1984 -1986: Lycée Louis Le Grand: equivalent to the first two years of university. Preparatory years for the Grandes Écoles, mathematics/physics.
- 1983-1984: Lycée Frédéric Mistral: Baccalauréat série C (Maths/Physics). Obtained with honors.
Awards
- 2020 : Price Eureka North Shore for the promotion of scientific education and popularization.
- 2020 : Doctor Honoris Causa, UC Leuven.
- 2018: Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
- 2017: Mongolfier Prize for Entrepreneurship in Education.
- 2013: Chevalier de l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques.
- 2010 : Ashoka Fellow.
- 2006: Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP) award.
- 2005: European Young Researcher Award (EURYI).
- 2004: Liliane Bettencourt Prize for Life Sciences.
- 2003: Award INSERM for fundamental research.
Scientific activities & Teaching
- Since 2020: Institut des Défis d'Université Paris Cité.
- Since 2014: UNESCO Chair in Learning Sciences with Université Paris Cité.
- 2012 - 2019 : French government's IDEFI program for innovation in education.
- 2011: Creation of the “Frontières du Vivant» bachelor's degree, the first French bachelor's degree program to enable students to train through research.
- 2007: Founder and director of the interdisciplinary doctoral school «Frontières du Vivant» (FdV) at the Universities of Paris Diderot & Paris Descartes, dedicated to enabling brilliant students to explore new frontiers at the interface between disciplines.
- 2006: Founder of the «Paris-Montagne» science festival at the’École Normale Supérieure and the «Science ac’» outreach program, which has provided laboratory training for over 1,000 high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
- 2005: Founder of the Centre de Recherches Interdisciplinaires (Faculty of Medicine, Paris Descartes).
- 2004 - 2007: Head of the interdisciplinary Master's program «Approches interdisciplinaires des sciences de la vie» (AIV), Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris Diderot and Paris Descartes Universities.
- 2000 - 2019: Ecole de Médecine Paris 5, INSERM U571 Causes and consequences of genetic and phenotypic variability, head of the Biology of evolutionary systems team.
- 1991 - 1999: Institute J.Monod, Paris, Mutagenesis Laboratory Molecular and evolutionary mechanisms controlling genetic variability.
- 1996 - 1997: Post-doct in J. Maynard Smith's laboratory (UK) and PH Gouyon (France) on the evolution of the mutation rate.
Publications
Research & Education
Co-author of several research and education reports for the French government, the OECD, the EU and UNESCO.
- 2021 : Rethinking our futures together-A new social contract for education, Report of the UNESCO International Commission on the Future of Education.
- 2021 : Embracing a culture of lifelong learning: learn how to learn collectively: lifelong learning to take care of oneself, others, and the planet, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning.
- 2018 : A plan to build a learning society together (for the attention of the French Minister of Labor, the Minister of National Education and the Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation).
- 2017 : Towards a learning society (for the attention of the French Minister of Education, Higher Education and Research).
- 2015 : Report on the national strategy (addressed to the French Ministries of Research and Higher Education).
- 2009 : Training creative, collaborative knowledge-builders A major challenge for education in the 21st century (OECD report).
- 2007 : Training Europe's next generation of interdisciplinary scientists (with Ariel Lindner).
- 2006: Science Academie: Igniting scientific passions and fostering a new social bond.
Literature
- 2022 : Author of the book Et Si Nous?, published by Calmann-Lévy.
- 2018 : Book author Learning in the 21st century, published by Calmann-Lévy.