Michèle Tixier-Boichard, DVM, PhD
French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA)
Dr. Tixier-Boichard is a senior scientist at INRA (the French National Institute for Agricultural Research) where she has been working on chicken genetics since 1985. She has been involved in European projects, being a partner of ChickMap (1995- 1998) and AvianDiv (1998-2000) and an invited expert in SEFABAR (sustainable breeding) and GLOBALDIV (characterization and management of animal genetic resources). She is involved in several international scientific collaborations regarding poultry genetics with Sweden, UK, Taiwan, Vietnam, Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroun and Morocco, including both phenotypic and molecular tools. Her personal interests include: genetics of egg production traits, molecular characterisation of major genes and particularly feather colour genes, molecular assessment of genetic diversity in chickens, characterisation and conservation of local breeds. She has published more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals, was a supervisor of 10 thesis and 15 master students. Since February 2010 she is chairing the board of the French National Cryobank. Since January 2012, she is also deputy scientific director for the environmental sciences at INRA, in charge of biodiversity issues. She is a member of the World Poultry Science Association since 1989 and a member of the North-American Society of Poultry Science since 1990. She has been elected Vice-president of the WPSA board in 2004 and re-elected in 2008 and 2012.