This special one-day symposium to celebrate the distinguished career and many achievements of one of our most esteemed colleagues, Anne Ephrussi.

From leading EMBL’s developmental biology research unit to setting new directions for the organisation’s training offerings, Anne has made an indelible mark on European life sciences.

Anne’s academic path began at Harvard University for her undergraduate studies followed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where she earned her PhD. After two postdocs – at Harvard University and the Whitehead Institute, MIT – she began her career at EMBL. In 1992, she launched her EMBL research group. Using the oskar gene as a paradigm, her team focused on understanding how RNA molecules are transported and their translation regulated in animal development, and how the germ plasm forms and induces germline formation.

Anne was actively involved in shaping EMBL’s training programmes, and in 2005, became Head of the newly created EMBL International Centre for Advanced Training (EICAT). In this role, she oversaw EMBL’s predoctoral and postdoctoral programmes, as well as EMBL’s courses and conferences. She served as Associate Dean and then Dean of the PhD Programme and was instrumental in developing what is now the EMBL Postdoctoral Programme. At the same time, she led EMBL’s Developmental Biology Unit from 2007 to 2021, whose focus she oriented towards organismal morphogenesis.

Anne’s formal accolades are numerous. She was elected to the French Académie des Sciences in 2008 and to the US Academy of Sciences in 2022. In 2023, Anne received the Society for Developmental Biology Lifetime Achievement Award, and a year later, the FEBS/EMBO Women in Science Award.

We are thrilled to bring together many of Anne’s key scientific colleagues, collaborators, and friends, for a memorable day of talks and exchange to mark her formal retirement.