Dr Gilles LEMAIRE has had a 40 year research career at INRA Center in Lusignan devoted to ecophysiology of grasslands and forage crops, grazing ecology and plant-herbivore interactions. He directed the Research Unit “Forage and Grassland Ecophysiology? at INRA Lusignan (1986-1992). He was deputy director of Department Environment & Agronomy of INRA (1993-2002). He retired from INRA in 2009. He had a position of visiting professor at University of Porto-Alegre (Brazil) in 2011-2012. He has been elected as member of Academy of Agriculture of France in 2011.