Yves Lévy


Yves Lévy is a French physician researcher and professor of clinical immunology. Between 2014 and 2018, Lévy has been CEO of the Inserm the French Institute of Health and Medical Research.

Early life and education

Yves Lévy was born in Casablanca, Morocco, and arrived in France with his parents in 1973. He was naturalised one and a half years later. His passion was literature, before he turned to medicine. After studying medicine and finishing his residency he dedicated himself to HIV research in 1986.

Career

Levy became a professor of clinical immunology, specializing on immunotherapies and vaccines for HIV infection, immunodeficiencies and infectious diseases.
Since 1985 he has been working in different research units at the Inserm, the French Institute of Health and Medical Research.
From 1996 to the present he has directed the Department of Clinical Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Henri Mondor de Créteil Hospital.
In 2006, Yves Lévy became scientific director of the vaccine programme of the French National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis.
In 2011, he created the Vaccine Research Institute laboratory of excellence under the Investissement d’Avenir programme and has been its executive director.
From 2010 to 2012, Lévy was vice-dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Paris-Est Créteil University. He became a special advisor to the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation.
In June 2014, after 29 years of working at INSERM, Lévy was appointed its CEO. During confirmation hearings, a conflict of interest was brought up for the first time because his wife had been appointed by Emmanuel Macron as the minister of health in May 2017.
Although his term expired June 11, 2018 and in spite of public controversy he remained to be the interim head. As of mid June 2018 he was expected to run again. but withdrew his candidacy July 30, 2018.
On October 11, 2018, the Minister of Justice appointed him as "advisor of state in extraordinary service".

Personal life

Yves Lévy is married to French hematologist and former French health minister Agnès Buzyn. They have one child together.