Alain Pompidou
Alain Pompidou (5 April 1942 – 11 December 2024) was a French scientist and politician. He was the adopted son of former French president Georges Pompidou and was born in Paris.
He earned doctorates in medicine, biology and science and became a professor of histology, embryology and cytogenetics at the University of Paris, a position he held from 1974 to 2004. He also led the cytogenetics and pathology department at the Cochin – St Vincent de Paul – La Roche Guyon Hospital in Paris and chaired the hospital group’s advisory board. Pompidou spent time in the United States at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
As an author, he wrote on science, ethics and biomedicine, and he advised many national and international organizations, including the World Health Organization, UNESCO and the European Commission. He helped found the French Academy of Technologies and advised the French government on science policy. He participated in UNESCO’s ethics of space activities and served as vice-chair of COMEST in 2004.
In politics, Pompidou was a member of the European Parliament from 1989 to 1999. He focused on research funding programs, the legal protection of biotechnological inventions (gene patents), bioethics and innovation policy. He led the Parliament’s Scientific and Technological Options Assessment from 1994 to 1999 and headed the Intergroupe Ciel et Espace Européen.
In 2004 he was elected by the European Patent Office Administrative Council as its fourth president, serving until 2007. He was the first Frenchman to hold the post and aimed to make the EPO more open and raise awareness of patent policy among policymakers.
From 1990 to 2004, Pompidou also oversaw medical services at Saint-Vincent-de-Paul hospital in Paris. In 2005, a controversy at the hospital involving a collection of fetuses and stillborn babies led the authorities to reprimand him, though no criminal violations were found.
Alain Pompidou died in Paris on 11 December 2024 at the age of 82.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 05:32 (CET).