Jean-Antoine Girault, MD, PhD, trained as a neurologist and biochemist, focused his activities on research since his post-doctoral work. He is Research Director at Inserm (French National Institute for health and medicaI research) and headed the Institut du Fer à Moulin in Paris (2007-2020), affiliated with Inserm and Sorbonne University and dedicated to the development and plasticity of the nervous system. Strongly supporting interactions between neuroscience and psychiatry, he coordinated the “Laboratory of excellence Biology for Psychiatry” (Bio-Psy Labex, 2012-2020), a network of basic and clinical research groups in Paris area. He is currently president of the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS). Jean-Antoine Girault’s research interests are focused on intracellular signaling. He studies the mechanisms through which dopamine and other neurotransmitters trigger long-lasting changes in striatal neurons. These changes are important for incentive learning and their alterations are involved in conditions as diverse as addiction and movement disorders. JA Girault is also investigating the role of non-receptor tyrosine kinases in the nervous system and their implication in neurodegenerative and mental disorders.