Renaud Piarroux

Alliance Sorbonne Université – Global Health Institute (ASU‑GHI), Paris, France

Title: How microbes have shaped geopolitical relations throughout history

Bio Sketch

For about thirty years, Professor Renaud Piarroux (Sorbonne University – Pitié‑Salpêtrière hospital) has been involved in combating large‑scale epidemics around the world, particularly cholera. Notably, at the request of the Haitian government and the French Embassy, he conducted the investigation into the origin of the epidemic that spread throughout the country nine months after the January 2010 earthquake. In this context, he worked with UNICEF and the Haitian Ministry of Health to guide control measures that ultimately led to the elimination of the disease in early 2019.

Since the beginning of the Covid‑19 pandemic, he has supported the leadership of Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris in the epidemiological monitoring of the crisis. He is the author of Choléra Haïti, histoire d’un désastre (CNRS Ed, 2019), Sapiens et les microbes, les épidémies d’autrefois (CNRS Ed, 2025), Sapiens et les microbes, les épidémies contemporaines (CNRS Ed, 2026), and more than 70 international publications on the epidemiology of infectious diseases and strategies to control and eliminate them.