Université de Strasbourg

Odile Petit

Odile PetitOdile Petit is permanent investigator at the Ecology, Physiology and Ethology Department of IPHC in the Evolutionary Ethology group. She is an expert in animal behaviour, especially in Primatology. She studied Behavioural Neurosciences and Ethology at several French universities. For her PhD project, she compared the aggressive and conciliatory behaviours of five primates’ species and she obtained her diploma of Strasbourg University in 1996 with honors. She joined the CNRS in 1998 and was promoted to the grade of Director of Research in 2011.

In the last 10 years, Dr Petit has been studying collective decision-making in many primates’ species and she is recognized as a leader in the field. She will now apply these competences in her USIAS project by studying a suitable model for exploring new questions on leadership: the domestic horse.

Odile Petit Academie Royale Belgique 2015She collaborates with the other scientists inside her department as well as with several international teams, such as the free University of Brussels, where she has a position as a research associate. She is president of the French Society for the Study of Animal Behaviour, which increases the understanding of Ethology and encourages scientific exchanges within the French community. In 2012, she became Officer in National Order of Merit and received the Scientific Prize of the Académie Rhénane. More recently, she has joined the Editorial board of the international scientific journal Plos One.

On 30 May 2015, Odile Petit has been elected Member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Literature and Arts of Belgium.



During her Fellowship, Odile Petit will be working on the project What makes a good leader? The animal origin of leadership.

France 2030