Every five years, a new dean’s office team, composed of associate deans and project managers, is appointed by the dean to represent him or her in carrying out specific tasks. This year, Prof. Arnaud Bourdin was appointed Vice Dean in charge of relations with the Clinical Research and Innovation Delegations (DRCI) at the Montpellier and Nîmes University Hospitals. Read his interview here: learn about his career and the projects he hopes to implement as part of his role!

You were appointed by the Dean, Ms. Isabelle Laffont. Could you tell us about your background and your area of expertise?

Pulmonology is an extremely broad discipline, covering fields as diverse as vascular medicine, inflammation, oncology, allergy, immunology, aerology, and—more traditionally—environmental science, infectious diseases, critical care, addiction medicine, and a significant amount of technical expertise. It fosters culture, knowledge, and open-mindedness. It is, by far, the organ most in contact with the environment. It is a difficult organ to study. One must be fully engaged in this interaction, driven by a desire to understand, to reason, and to generate evidence in order to grasp this wide range of topics; it is also a discipline that inspires humility, with all that this entails in terms of responsibility and ethics for making progress.

How do you plan to balance your duties as associate dean with your other professional responsibilities?

As President of the DRCI and the CRBSP, I have been committed for many years to fostering a culture of science within our faculty. Knowledge is often right there, within reach, and not all questions can be solved with “recipes” that are impossible to teach. The issue, therefore, is not about balancing activities, but about promoting this vision as much as possible in all the activities of the School of Medicine.

What will your contributions and goals be? What projects do you hope to carry out in your role?

The first objective is, of course, educational: research is an integral part of health-related degree programs, from the assessment of knowledge to the awarding of various degrees and the roles of faculty members who are also researchers. The charter of responsibility, ethics, and respect for patients are deeply rooted in the humanities and social sciences of the past, and the Montpellier-Nîmes Faculty must be a pioneer in this field. The second objective is to foster a culture of research within the Faculty, through its commitments as well as its human and intellectual heritage. In collaboration with the scientific advisory board, the direction of major structural projects, the identification of needs, and the analysis of both successes and failures must help us move forward collectively.

What motivated you to accept this appointment?

Learning through research, a passion for progress, a rejection of mediocrity and the “idiopathic,” and a desire to continually improve patient care and support—all of which require rigorous and ambitious educational and scientific policies—are the driving forces behind our motivation. Today, this is an urgent challenge facing our Faculty and, more broadly, our university hospitals—not only to ensure their legitimacy and sustainability, but also, and above all, their excellence.