[Portrait] Céline Bourgeois, Teacher, Head of the Biological Engineering Department at the IUT and Vice-president in charge of the environmental transition

What do you do?

As head of department, I manage the department's pedagogical and technical organisation: budget management, adherence to the syllabus, organisation of teaching with the team and management of the technical staff of the Biological Engineering BUT.
At national level, I am vice-president of the assembly of heads of department. As part of this, I am piloting the reform of the BUT GB food science and biotechnology pathway using a skills-based approach.
When it comes to teaching, I'm very versatile! From biologythe biochemistryby way of the process engineering and food technologyMy training as an agri-food engineer has given me expertise in a wide range of fields.

What's your latest news?

The installation of the GOAL is complete!
It has been a huge team effort, we have successfully implemented apprenticeships in 3ᵉ year (65% of our students).

It was also an opportunity to introduce innovative teaching in the biology and biotechnology of algae: we invested in a algae photobioreactor. There are many applications and projects to be developed for our students and in research: food and feed, agricultural biostimulants, bioplastics, biofuels... we try to do our best to fulfil our mission of training our students for the jobs of the future!

At national level, I have just been appointed to the National Pedagogical Commission of the IUTs.
At university, I'm taking over from Naomi Mazzilli at the Vice-Chairman responsible for Environmental Transition.
My role will be to implement the sustainability master plan that has just been approved by the Board.
The stakes are very high and the university community is waiting, so I'm going to put all my energy into it.
For this mission, the first event I am coordinating is Environment Week from 25 to 28 March. It has been organised by students for over 10 years and is supported by the university! I hope that many of you will take part in the activities.

Why did you choose to work at university?

I'm passionate about sharing knowledge and skills with students. I'm always enthusiastic, and I think that university is a wonderful place for freedom and expression.

What object or image from your business best illustrates you?

I choose to showcase our students; it's for them that I work first and foremost!