Interview with Pr Anne Maître

Your proudest achievement

Creating the "Occupational and Environmental Toxicology" hospital laboratory alongside the "Environment and Population Health Prediction" university team. And above all, to have found two young successors "who look like me", i.e. who work in the same spirit of a small family where we dare to say things to each other, and who are keen to create a world in which we are happy to work. That makes me really happy.

The greatest difficulty you've encountered in your career

Looking for money, for contracts, it made my life miserable!

Looking for money, for contracts, it made my life miserable!

From the very beginning of my career, I had to look for money to pay salaries to develop the lab, because the team at the beginning wasn't even a host team. Everything had to be done, and that was the only way to develop research in occupational health. And this constant search for money takes time away from scientific reflection, work management and concentration. Then you don't have enough time to go deeper into what you really want to do.

Of all the positions you've held, which is your favorite ?

The National Council of Universities. It puts your problems into perspective, it gave me confidence. I was able to help women who lacked confidence by giving them career advice, because it's not easy to be a woman in medicine.

Of all the positions you've held, which have made you feel the most useful?

Teaching. I had a lot to pass on to students and to "moralize" about the big question, "What do you want to do with your life?

A message you'd like to send to the women in our careers

You have to believe in yourself, dare to speak up and express yourself. You are as competent as anyone else. You have to believe in equality and not accept the idea that you've succeeded just because you're a woman. You have to build on science and rigor. We have the same weapons as men, and we're made to believe that we don't have the same weapons. No, as women we don't have to serve coffee or listen to, sometimes, inappropriate reflections... I've sometimes used provocation to get certain messages across.

Do you have a message for young people who might be hesitant to pursue a career in academia or a university hospital?

First of all, you have to have a dream, an ideal, and work shouldn't be a constraint. 40 years is a long time!

For this kind of career, you have to take small steps, build up gradually, not wanting to get to the top too quickly, but giving yourself the means. You can't just get there. You have to believe in yourself, be a marathon runner, not a sprinter. You must also be aware that to reach the summit you must be accompanied by several people. If you're not accompanied, you're not going anywhere. This is sometimes difficult in this world of rugged individualism. Older people must be there to support younger people with kindness, to help them without oppressing them. You have to be able to keep the desire for these long careers, to enjoy yourself, to try things out, not to believe that everything comes from others because you're the only one who decides. You have to be honest with yourself to be proud of yourself. I would also say that to do this job you need to speak English and be open to others.

Do you have a message for people who are seeing the retirement age fall further and further?

Take your time. Life is long. To believe in it to the end, you have to keep having fun, make time for science, for the things you really enjoy, and take the time to settle down. Otherwise, you're running and you're not happy with yourself. You also have to be careful not to be "eaten up" by others. As you get older, you need to know how to protect yourself.

Do you have a message for the public authorities?

To the Ministry of Research:

I think we need to reorganise our research teams. The different institutes (CNRS, INSERM, CEA, INRA) compete with each other, but they don't have the same weapons.  We need a different system, with different supervisory bodies, different financial resources and different management methods.

I think we need to give teachers and researchers more choice. We can't do everything at the top. It would also be appropriate to set 5, 7 or 10 year objectives and, depending on the period, to choose whether to give priority to research or teaching. The administrative responsibilities of teacher-researchers should be given greater prominence.

As far as team leaders are concerned, we need to give them more support, better training and relief from administrative and financial tasks.

I think we also need fixed allocations so that we can compete on a level playing field. We shouldn't be competitors in this small country of France. We don't have the resources to compete because there aren't many of us.

I also think we should pay teacher-researchers more, give them more support, be more demanding, train those who have more difficulties in teaching and sometimes help them to improve.

To risk managers:

Better (financial) support is needed for teams involved over the long term (10 years...) to avoid wasting time looking for funding. We need to support a project over the long term, rather than giving it piecemeal.

4 key words to sum up your career

• Proud
• Woman
• Marathon runner
• Human