prof. dr. Joël de Rosnay

About Joël de Rosnay

Joël de Rosnay is presently President of Biotics International, a consulting company specialized in the impact of new technologies on industries, and Special Advisor to the President of the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie at La Villette of which he was Director of Forecasting and Assesment until June 2002. From 1975 to 1985 he was Director of Research Applications at l'Institut Pasteur (the Pasteur Institute in Paris).

Former research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the field of biology and computer graphics, he was successively Scientific Attaché to the French Embassy in the United States, and Scientific Director of European Enterprises Development Company (a venture capital group) from 1971 to 1975.

He is particularly interested in advanced technologies and the applications of system theory. On these subjects, he wrote : "Le Macroscope" (1975), "Les Chemins de la Vie" (The paths of life) (1983) and "Le Cerveau Planétaire" (The planetary brain) (1986). As well as several reports, namely : "Biotechnologies and Bio-Industry" (1979), an annex to the report "Sciences de la vie et Société" by Professors Gros, Jacob and Royer. He was also co-responsable for the report which led to the creation of CESTA (Centre d'Etudes des Systèmes et des Technologies Avancées / Center for the study of systems and advanced technologies, 1982).

He wrote for several years on new technologies for the economic magazine "L'Expansion". He speaks on the same subject for Europe1, a radio network. He is the author of several scientific books aimed at a large public, such as "Les origines de la vie", (The origins of life) (1966); "La malbouffe" (the wrong food) (1979), "La Révolution Biologique" (the biological revolution) (1982) ; "Branchez-Vous" (Plug-in !), (1984), a book on personal computers ; "L'Aventure du Vivant" (The adventure of life) (1988) ; "L'avenir en direct" (Live from the future), (1989) ; "Les rendez-vous du Futur" (Rendez-vous with the future) (1991) ; "L'Homme Symbiotique, regards sur le 3eme millénaire" (Symbiotic Man, a look into the third millenium) (1995). "La plus belle histoire du monde" (The most beautiful history of the World) with Yves Coppens, Hubert Reeves and Dominique Simonnet, Seuil, 1996. "Une vie en plus" with Jean-Louis Servan-Schreiber, François de Closets and Dominique Simonnet, Seuil 2005. "La révolte du Pronétariat" with the collaboration of Carlo Revelli, Fayard, 2006. "2020 : Les scénarios du futur", Fayard, 2008.

In 1990 he was prize-winner of the Academie des Sciences Award for scientific communication.