Daniel Choquet (born 1962) is a French

neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, Biological neural network, n ...

Personal life and career

Daniel Choquet is the son of the

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate caus ...

Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat Yvonne Choquet-Bruhat (; born 29 December 1923) is a French mathematician and physicist. She has made seminal contributions to the study of General relativity, Einstein's general theory of relativity, by showing that the Einstein field equations, ...

and the

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

Gustave Choquet Gustave Choquet (; 1 March 1915 – 14 November 2006) was a French mathematician. Choquet was born in Solesmes, Nord. His contributions include work in functional analysis, potential theory, topology and measure theory. He is known for creati ...

. He is the grandson of the

Georges Bruhat. He obtained his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in 1979, followed by a degree in

bioengineering Biological engineering or bioengineering is the application of principles of biology and the tools of engineering to create usable, tangible, economically-viable products. Biological engineering employs knowledge and expertise from a number o ...

from

École centrale Paris École Centrale Paris (ECP; also known as École Centrale or Centrale) was a French grande école in engineering and science. It was also known by its official name ''École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures''. In 2015, École Centrale Paris mer ...

in 1984. He obtained his P.hD. in 1988 from

Pierre and Marie Curie University Pierre and Marie Curie University (french: link=no, Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie, UPMC), also known as Paris 6, was a public university, public research university in Paris, France, from 1971 to 2017. The university was located on the Jussi ...

and studied

pharmacology Pharmacology is a branch of medicine, biology and pharmaceutical sciences concerned with drug or medication action, where a drug may be defined as any artificial, natural, or endogenous (from within the body) molecule which exerts a biochemica ...

at the

Pasteur Institute The Pasteur Institute (french: Institut Pasteur) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vaccines f ...

. That year, he started working for the

French National Centre for Scientific Research The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe. In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...

(CNRS). From 1994 to 1996, he was a post-doctoral fellow at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

. The following year, in 1997, he was promoted to research director at the CNRS. He is the director of the Bordeaux Imaging Center and the Interdisciplinary Institute for Neuroscience. He was elected as a member of the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV of France, Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific me ...

on November 30, 2010.

Research

Choquet is a

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual Cell (biology), cell, a multicellular organism, or a Community (ecology), community of Biological inter ...

, focusing on nanoscopic imaging and the organization of receptors in

neurons A neuron, neurone, or nerve cell is an electrically excitable cell that communicates with other cells via specialized connections called synapses. The neuron is the main component of nervous tissue in all animals except sponges and placozoa. N ...

. His early research included work on the properties of

ion channels Ion channels are pore-forming membrane proteins that allow ions to pass through the channel pore. Their functions include establishing a resting membrane potential, shaping action potentials and other electrical signals by gating the flow of io ...

B lymphocytes B cells, also known as B lymphocytes, are a type of white blood cell of the lymphocyte subtype. They function in the humoral immunity component of the adaptive immune system. B cells produce antibody molecules which may be either secreted or ...

. This research work earned him the CNRS Bronze medal in 1990. During his post-doc at Duke, he discovered that cells can respond and adapt to the mechanical properties of their environment. Since 1996, he has researched the fundamental properties of the transmission of

nerve impulses An action potential occurs when the membrane potential of a specific cell location rapidly rises and falls. This depolarization then causes adjacent locations to similarly depolarize. Action potentials occur in several types of animal cells, ...

in the brain and developed new

nanoscale The nanoscopic scale (or nanoscale) usually refers to structures with a length scale applicable to nanotechnology, usually cited as 1–100 nanometers (nm). A nanometer is a billionth of a meter. The nanoscopic scale is (roughly speaking) a lo ...

imaging techniques. He discovered that receptors move in living neurons and that these movements in and out

synapses In the nervous system, a synapse is a structure that permits a neuron (or nerve cell) to pass an electrical or chemical signal to another neuron or to the target effector cell. Synapses are essential to the transmission of nervous impulses from ...

participate to synaptic plasticity, a phenomenon thought to underlie learning and memory. Choquet's current work involves attempting to understand the role of receptor movements in

neurodegenerative diseases A neurodegenerative disease is caused by the progressive loss of structure or function of neurons, in the process known as neurodegeneration. Such neuronal damage may ultimately involve cell death. Neurodegenerative diseases include amyotrophic ...

. His recent research work has earned him the 2004 CEA Prize and the 2009

CNRS Silver Medal The CNRS Silver Medal is a scientific award given every year to about fifteen researchers by the French National Centre for Scientific Research The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherch ...

Awards

* 1990: CNRS Bronze medal * 1994: Petit-Dormoy prize of the

Académie des Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. It was at the ...

* 1994: Prize of the "société de secours des amis de la science" * 1997: Research prize form the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale * 2004: Grand prix de l'Académie des Sciences, prize of the CEA * 2006: Labeled FRM team by the "Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale" * 2007: Laureate of the "Bauer Lectureship award", Brandeis University * 2008: Laureate of an "ERC advanced research grant" from the European Commission * 2009: Nominated author of the year 2008 by the French Society for Neurosciences * 2009:

* 2010: Elected member of the French Academy of Sciences, integrative biology section * 2011: Laureate of the "Victoires de la médecine 2011" * 2012: Nominated "Chevalier de l'ordre des Palmes académiques" * 2013 : laureate of an "ERC advanced research grant" from the European Commission * 2014: Elected member of EMBO * 2015 : elected member of the Academia Europaea * 2016 : Nominated "chevalier de l'ordre de la légion d'honneur" * 2018 : laureate of an "ERC advanced research grant" from the European Commission * 2021 : Nominated "officier de l'ordre des Palmes académiques"

References

External links

Biosketch en anglais

presentation on the web site of the Bordeaux Neuroscience Federation

web site of the Interdisciplinary Institute for Neuroscience

web site of the Bordeaux Imaging Center
{{DEFAULTSORT:Choquet, Daniel 1962 births French neuroscientists Living people Members of the French Academy of Sciences Pierre and Marie Curie University alumni Research directors of the French National Centre for Scientific Research École Centrale Paris alumni