Which medical school did you graduate from and when?
Medical school: Necker-Enfants Malades, Paris, France 1977 (Medical studies); MD thesis, Rouen 1982; Specialist degree in Cardiology: Rouen 1982; PhD in Pharmacology, Rouen 1985. Since 1996, in Bordeaux as Professor of clinical pharmacology. Head of department since 2003, when Bernard Begaud was elected president of the University.

Which patient has had the most effect on your work, and why?
All my patients have had an effect. A "25 year-old" woman with primary pulmonary hypertension taught me the meaning of hope; a "35 year-old" colleague who fought T cell lymphoma taught me courage; a "65 year-old" man with terminal heart failure whose main life objective was to be able to go fishing again taught me success. All three died. Life is transient, so leave something to be remembered by…

What is your best published work?
Beauty and quality are in eyes of the beholder. My favourite piece of work may be a paper in 1985 on spouse-related side-effects. I am proud of most of my published work (or I wouldn't have submitted it). And maybe (like in other matters) the first one has a special place in my heart (Hemodynamic Effects of Vasodilators in Dogs, in 1981). But the best? No idea. Who am I to judge, anyhow?

What is the best piece of advice you have received?
There are 24 hours in a working day, and if that's not enough, son, you can also work in the evening to quote one of my early teachers. Also be wary of new fads, and do not discard old things or ideas too fast.

What is the best advice that you can give a new person in the field?
The same. Oh, and never reject another's work, until you have given it a good look. There may be merit in the strangest things.

What is your greatest regret?
That there are only 24 hours in a day, and 7 days in a week to live all the lives I'd like. Or that cloning doesn't work yet.

What apart from your partner is the passion of your life?
Understanding things. In the more mundane interpretation, my children, my family, my department, my ongoing studies, pharmacology in all its dimensions, from molecular pharmacology to pharmacoepi, and my colleagues in these matters, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, fair trial, no taxation without representation…

What is your greatest fear?
Heights, mainly, and stupid things like bungee jumping.

What are you currently reading?
Define currently: Right now: My responses to this @&#!!?§!! (expletive deleted) questionnaire. Within the last and next week or month: How to Fail Your Life — Ship of Fools — Harry Potter — several other books in my pile of things to read — the latest issue of PDS — the latest issue of Scientific American — the latest daily issue of the International Herald Tribune — papers from the department waiting to be submitted or rewritten including a few I've written — grant proposals (ours and others) — study protocols for our department and for the IRB — papers to referee for PDS and other journals — the 1,000 or so pages of the next hospital board meeting or the minutes of the last — about 90 emails a day (not all junk, unfortunately), most of which seem to come from Mark Epstein and the ICPE core committee — etc.etc.etc.

What is your favourite country?
Depends on where I am and what I have to do with it. Not the same for working, living, vacations, skiing, sailing, lying in the sun, seeing friends, going to meetings, shopping, eating, etc. For instance foie gras is best in France, but the Rockies — shirts and socks are better in the US, and the beaches in the Antilles or Vietnam are not bad, either.

What do you think is the most exciting field of science at the moment?
Mine, of course, or I'd be doing something else.

What part of your work gives you the most pleasure?
A well-prepared and well-done study, and seeing the results come out the way you hoped they would, or sometimes not, and trying to understand why.

What is your favorite journey, and why?
Do you mean trip, vacation? Mostly any of my past (and probably future) trips, to Venice in 1979, the South-West and Rockies in 1978 and 1994, California in 1997, Greenland in 2002, Vietnam and Cambodia in 2001 and 2002, Xinjiang in 2001 and 2003, and many other times and places, in France, Europe and the rest of the world. For the memories, and the people we met. Each has its special place. If you mean professional, the long journey from fundamental experimental pharmacology to pharmacoepidemiology through clinical pharmacology, learning new things along the way.

What is your favorite saying?
What, me worry?

What is the least enjoyable job you've ever had?
None I've ever done.

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