Matthew Schuler appointed Risk Assessment Director of ANSES

On 1 February 2018, Matthew Schuler was appointed Risk Assessment Director of ANSES. A graduate of the prestigious Ecole des Mines, he had been Strategy Director at the French Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety Institute (IRSN) since September 2011.

As ANSES's Risk Assessment Director, he will now lead its expert appraisal work and give impetus to the Agency's strategic orientations in risk assessment. He replaces Dominique Gombert, who on 9 October 2017 was appointed chief of staff to Brune Poirson, Secretary of State to Nicolas Hulot, Minister for Ecological and Inclusive Transition. With a career path that has given him a comprehensive view of safety and security issues, particularly with regard to health, Matthew Schuler took up his new position as Risk Assessment Director of ANSES on 1 February 2018.

In this leadership role, he will give impetus to the department's orientations and the scientific expert appraisal work essential to the implementation of public policies. His knowledge of societal issues regarding risk perception, his contribution within the IRSN to cross- cutting policies such as the national plans on occupational health, environmental health and cancer, and his commitment to a policy of openness to society will all prove to be real assets when it comes to carrying out his new missions within the Agency. A graduate of the Ecole des Mines in 1993, and then of the Corps des Mines in 1996, Matthieu Schuler has devoted himself from the outset of his career to controlling risks, particularly those associated with radioactivity, from the facilities that generate them through to human health and environmental protection. Following several assignments in France and abroad, he joined the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) in 1996 as deputy head of the office for control of nuclear steam supply systems, before taking charge of this office in 1999.

In 2002, he became Deputy Director of the Ecole des Mines in Nantes, where he actively participated in managing the school, consolidating its laboratories’ scientific partnerships, and expanding the international scope of the campus. At the same time, he held the position of Deputy Director at the Regional Directorate for Industry, Research and the Environment of the Pays de la Loire region. In 2009, he joined the IRSN as Deputy Director of the Human Protection Department, before becoming the institute's Strategy Director in 2011. For Matthew Schuler, the health risk assessment mission is "a major challenge to both science and society: deciding, on the basis of the best available knowledge and in a fully independent capacity, on the existence and levels of risk, particularly in situations of uncertainty. This implies strengthening the links between risk assessment, surveillance schemes and research work, in order to ensure the availability and quality of scientific knowledge in support of public policy-making".

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