Dr Catherine Boyen is a marine biologist and genomicist, focusing her research on marine macro-algae and bacteria associated to algae. She is currently Director of Research at CNRS and heading the Department of Marine Plants and Biomolecules at the Marine Laboratory in Roscoff. The department comprises five research groups investigating i)structure and function of algal cell wall, ii)interaction of algae with bacteria, iii)adaptation and acclimation to biotic and abiotic stress and iv)genetic bases of development and morphogenesis. She obtained her PhD in Marine Biology in 1986 at the University of Paris 6 and entered the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in 1991. She was the scientific coordinator of the NoE “Marine Genomics Europe-MGE” 2004-2008, including 45 different partners from 16 countries. She is currently a member of the Scientific Council of the CNRS Institute for Biological Sciences, of the managing board of the Life Sciences cluster Biogenouest and co-coordinating the axis “Genomics and Blue Chemistry” within the blue network EuropôleMer. She is also active in the FP7 ENV CA Euromarine project “Integration of Marine Research Networks of Excellence” in which she leads the workpackage on Marine Research Strategy and is part of the Executive Committee. She is involved in the FP7 KBBE CSA project MarineBiotech which is an ERA-NET preparatory action in Marine Biotechnology and contributed to the MB-ESF Position Paper N° 15 on Marine Biotechnology.