Jacques Valade

Jacques Valade
Minister of Higher Education and Research
In office 20 January 1987 – 10 May 1988
President	François Mitterrand
Prime Minister	Jacques Chirac
Preceded by	Alain Devaquet
Succeeded by	Hubert Curien
President of the Regional Council of Aquitaine
In office 1992–1998
Preceded by	Jean Tavernier
Succeeded by	Alain Rousset
Personal details
Born	(1930-05-04)4 May 1930 Bordeaux, France
Died	3 October 2023(2023-10-03) (aged 93) Bordeaux, France
Political party	UDR RPR

Jacques Valade (4 May 1930 – 3 October 2023) was a French scientist and a French politician.

Scientific career :

A chemical engineer, he obtained a thesis in organic chemistry in 1950, and became an assistant and then an associate professor at the Bordeaux Faculty of Science in 1960. He was Professor at the University of Bordeaux (1963-1987), Dean of the Faculty of Science (1968-1970), and Director of the Institut du Pin (1969-1974), a public-private institute for the study and development of chemical components and derivatives from maritime pine in Bordeaux.

Local political career :

At the same time, he took on local political responsibilities, serving as deputy to Bordeaux mayor (Jacques Chaban-Delmas, then Alain Juppé), from 1971 to 2001 (first deputy from 1977 to 1992), President of the General Council of the Gironde department from 1985 to 1988, and President of the Regional Council of the Aquitaine region from 1992 to 1998.

National political career :

He was a deputy from 1970 to 1973 and a senator of Gironde from 1980 to 1987 and from 1989 to 2008 (1995-2001 - Vice-President of the Senate ; 2001-2008 - Chairman of the Senate Cultural Affairs Committee), and Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research from 1987 to 1988. From 2008 to 2015, he was appointed Ambassador-at-Large for French decentralized cooperation in Asia.

Distinctions :

• Officer of Legion of Honour order in 2007 (Knight in 1999)
• Commander of Ordre des Palmes académiques in 2008 (Knight in 1993 - Officer in 2008)
• Order of the Rising Sun - Japan
• Order of the Three Stars - Latvia
• Order of the Equatorial Star - Gabon
• On avril 26th, 1984, he was elected as a resident member of the "Académie nationale des sciences, belles-lettres et arts de Bordeaux" (National Academy of Science, Art and Literature of Bordeaux) in chair no. 5".

Valade died on 3 October 2023 in Bordeaux, at the age of 93.