Catherine Feuillet received her PhD in plant biotechnology in 1993 followed by 10 years of postdoctoral studies and as assistant professor at the University of Zurich where she developed research projects aiming at the isolation of disease resistance genes and a better understanding of the genome structure and evolution of wheat and barley. In 2004, she was appointed by INRA in France as a research director to lead wheat genomics projects in support of wheat improvement. In 2013, Catherine joined Bayer CropScience as the head of Trait Research until April 2018 when she joined Inari, a start-up aiming at transforming plant breeding as Chief Scientific Officer.

Catherine has coordinated several large national and European projects and is one of the founders of the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium. She was elected the French “golden woman of the year for research” in 2008. Then, for her achievement in wheat research, she received in 2009 the “Prix Foulon” from the French Academy of Sciences. She received the Legion of Honour in 2010, was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2011and received the “Prix J. Dufrenoy” from the French Academy of Agriculture in 2012. Catherine has supervised the work of more than 30 masters, PhDs and postdoc scientists and published more than 120 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals and books.