Gilles Boeuf is a professor at the Pierre-et-Marie-Curie University (UPMC) and carries out his research work in the "Integrative Biology of Marine Organisms" unit at the Arago Laboratory (Observatoire océanologique) in Banyuls-sur-Mer, Pyrénées-Orientales
"Integrative Biology of Marine Organisms" unit at the Arago Laboratory (Oceanological Observatory) in Banyuls-sur-Mer, Pyrénées-Orientales. He is currently President of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle in Paris. After twenty years at IFREMER, he spent six years as Director of the Observatoire océanologique de Banyuls, then four years as Director of the CNRS/UPMC unit Modèles en biologie cellulaire et évolutive. He has been a member of numerous scientific councils, and was a member of the Comité National de la Recherche Scientifique for nine years (1991-2000).
He is currently Chairman of the Scientific Council of Agropolis International in Montpellier, Chairman of the Environment Commission of the Fondation de France, Chairman of the Scientific Council of CIRAD, and a member of the Scientific Council for Natural Heritage and Biodiversity of the French Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, member of the Board of Directors of the Agence des aires marines protégées and the Association Humanité et Biodiversité, member of the Comité de perfectionnement du Centre scientifique de Monaco, member of the Scientific Council of the Good Planet Association, member of the Bureau of the International Platform for Biodiversity and Ecological Services, President of the Association de gestion de la Réserve naturelle de la Massane (Pyrénées-Orientales). He is a member of the French Commission for Unesco, Knight of the Legion of Honor and of the National Order of Merit. In 2013, he was awarded the Albert1er Grand Medal by the Oceanographic Institute of Monaco for his career-long dedication to the oceans.
An academic, Gilles Boeuf did his thesis at the Arcachon marine biology station. He then worked in Brest as a research officer and then director at CNEXO and IFREMER. He then became a professor at UPMC and was posted to Banyuls, where he still pursues part of his teaching and research activities. He has carried out over 100 missions abroad, to some forty countries, and spent more than three years in Chile.