Philippe CURY (IRD, MARBEC), Emeritus Research Director, was awarded an honorary degree from the University of
British Columbia (UBC), which has 70,000 students. The 'Scientiae Doctoris' degree was conferred on 28 November 2025 in the presence of the President, the Chancellor, the Deans and many recent graduates of the University.
Philippe Cury - Recipient of an honorary degree from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver on 28 November 2025.
Following the introductory speech by the President of the UBC, Philippe CURY gave a ten-minute address to 1,300 members of the University.
Philippe CURY works in the field of marine ecology and fisheries and has traveled to numerous upwelling areas in Senegal, Ivory Coast, South Africa, and California since joining IRD in 1980. He was IRD Representative in Brussels between 2015 and 2021 and President of the Scientific Council of the Oceanographic Institute of Monaco for 12 years until 2021. He has published more than 170 peer-reviewed articles in leading international journals (Science, TREE, Ecology Letters, etc.).
He has contributed to the development of several ecological concepts and the promotion of new integrative and generic approaches in ecology, i.e., the concept of the “Optimal environmental window” (Cury and Roy 1989, Cury et al. 1995); the “generalized homing strategy” (Cury 1996); the ‘School trap’ (Bakun and Cury, 1999); the regulation of ‘Wasp-Waist’ ecosystems in marine ecosystems (Cury et al. 2000, 2002, 2004), and the predator-prey relationship between seabirds and forage fish ‘one third for the birds’ (Cury et al. 2011). More recently, he contributed to a guide for global marine reserves (Grorud-Colvert et al 2021).
He is also the author of several books for the general public, including « Une mer sans poissons » (A Sea Without Fish), published by Calmann-Levy and translated into Japanese, Chinese, and Catalan; « Mange tes méduses » (Eat Your Jellyfish), published by Odile Jacob in 2013; « L'Océan révélé » (The Ocean Revealed), published by CNRS in 2017, and "Obstinate Nature", with Daniel Pauly, in 2021.
He has received several awards, including the Philip Morris National Scientific Prize in 1991 (Life Sciences Prize), the French Oceanography Medal in 1995 from the Scientific Committee of Prince Albert of Monaco's Oceanography Museum, the Gilchrist Medal in 2002 (South African Marine Award), the 2012 Trophy for Best Scientific Achievement at Ifremer, the IRD Scientific Achievement Award in 2013, and the Trégouboff Prize from the French Academy of Sciences in 2014, Paris. He is a Knight of the Legion of Honor and a Knight of the Order of Saint Charles of Monaco.