The Institut Jacques Monod is proud to announce the election of Eva-Maria Geigl, emeritus research director at the CNRS, as a full member of the 4th Section of the Overseas Academy of Sciences.
This election honors Eva-Maria Geigl’s scientific career, as well as her major contributions to research. A specialist in paleogenomics, she studies ancient DNA to trace the evolutionary history of human populations and the domestication of animals. Her work contributes to expanding our knowledge of ancient societies, their ways of life, and their interactions with their environment.
Her election as a full member of the 4th Section of the Overseas Academy of Sciences reflects the recognition of her scientific expertise and the importance of her research for the advancement of knowledge. It also underscores the essential role of fundamental research in understanding the major scientific and historical challenges related to human societies and their evolution.
The 4th Section of the Academy of Overseas Sciences
Dedicated to the physical, natural, and biological sciences, as well as their applications, the 4th Section of the Academy of Overseas Sciences has 40 members, including 20 full members and 20 corresponding members. Its members are elected in recognition of their publications, studies, work, and research that contribute to the Academy’s missions, or for the outstanding services they render to the cultural, scientific, economic, technical, and human development of overseas territories.
Biography
Eva-Maria Geigl has pursued an academic career in science. She serves as Research Director Emerita at the CNRS (as of 2024).
She passed the state scientific examination in biology and chemistry (“Wissenschaftliches Staatsexamen”) in 1983 and holds a Doctorate in Natural Sciences from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Germany (1987).
Ph.D. researcher in the Department of Radiation Biology at the “Gesellschaft für Strahlen- und Umweltforschung” in Munich-Neuherberg, Germany (1983–1987), she continued as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Pathology at the “Gesellschaft für Strahlen- und Umweltforschung” (1988) before emigrating to the United States as a research fellow (funded by the “Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG”) at the “Stanford Medical Center,” Department of Genetics, HHMI, Stanford, USA (1989–1991). After serving as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Molecular Virology in Germany (1991), she received a fellowship at the Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, Institut Jacques Monod, Universities of Paris VI and VII, as part of a Franco-German research program, CNRS/AGF (1992). She continued at the same institution with a grant from the Association for Cancer Research (1992–1993), followed by a “Marie Curie” fellowship (the “Human Capital and Mobility” program, European Community) (1993–1995). Appointed as a European researcher (Principal Investigator of the French team in European Community networks) at the Jacques Monod Institute, Paris VI and VII Universities (1996–2003), she shifted her focus to paleogenetics and led a team at the Jacques Monod Institute (2003).
She was appointed to lead the research project “In Search of Lost Genomes” at the University of Paris VII Denis Diderot, Department of Biochemistry (2007), and was promoted to 2nd-class Research Director at the CNRS (2008). She headed the CNRS thematic network for the “Paleogenetics of Humans and Their Environment” program (2008–2011) and served as a member of the steering committee for the “Archeometry” Interdisciplinary Research Initiative (2010–2011). Member of the scientific committee of the CAI-RN network (Interdisciplinary Archaeometric Expertise – National Network) Archaeometry at the MRCT and later at the CNRS’s MITI (2011–2021); she is also a member of the working group tasked with establishing protocols for sampling and analyzing human bone, as well as for sample preservation, for the Ministry of Culture (2020–2022); she is co-leader of the “Epigenome & Paleogenome” team at the Jacques Monod Institute and head of the “Paleogenomics and Molecular Taphonomy Center” (2009–2024). Finally, she is responsible for the French partnership in the European project WIDESPREAD-05-2020 – Twinning: “Mapping the Neolithic Expansion in the Mediterranean: A Scientific Collective to Promote Archaeogenomics and Evolutionary Biology Research in Turkey” (H2020-WIDESPREAD-2020-5; CSA 952317; NEOMATRIX (2021–2024).
She was appointed First-Class Research Director at the CNRS (2021), then Emeritus Research Director (2024), and has supervised and co-supervised a dozen doctoral dissertations, as well as organized workshops, conferences, and exhibitions. Particularly attuned to the importance of widely disseminating scientific knowledge, she is committed to making research accessible to the general public through articles, lectures, exhibitions, radio interviews, television programs, films, podcasts, and popular science articles.
Eva-Maria Geigl was elected a full member of the 4th Section of the Overseas Academy of Sciences on July 3, 2026.