Christian BREANT has been first appointed by J. Solana in May 2008, EDA Director for Research & Technology, and for a second mandate by C. Ashton in November 2011.
From February 2005, he was deputy director for “technology strategy” at the Directorate for Force System and Strategies for Industry, Technology and Cooperation, and Research and Technology Director for Defence and Security of the “Délégation générale pour l’armement”.
Aged 56, he is a graduate from Ecole Polytechnique (1976) and PhD scientist in Laser Physics from Paris University. He was post-doc at JILA, Boulder, University of COLORADO, USA.
In 1985, he was assigned to the Directorate for Research and Technology (DRET) of Délégation Générale pour l’Armement (DGA). Initially in charge of R&T studies in the field of laser sources and systems, he became manager of the optronics and laser department in 1989.
In 1993, he was appointed to the office of the National Armament Director (NAD), in charge of the development of the Defence Scientific Campus in Palaiseau.
In 1994, he became Deputy Head of the Directorate for Research and Technology and Assistant to the NAD’s Chief scientist Adviser.
In 1997, he joined the Directorate for Cooperation and Industrial affairs (DCI) in Paris as Deputy Director in charge of industrial and economic analyses.
In addition to his work, he was an auditor at the Centre for Advanced Studies in Armament (CHEAr, Paris, 1995-1996), the Centre for Advanced Military Studies (CHEM) and the Institute for Advanced Studies in National Defence (IHEDN, Paris, 1999-2000). In 2000, he was appointed Managing Director of the Defence Analysis Centre (CAD) in charge of operational analysis and simulation for the preparation of the future defence systems.
In 2004, he became Director of the common technologies department and in charge of technological prospective and preparation of the technical policies for DGA.
In March 2005 Christian Bréant was elected a member of the French Academy of Technologies. In 2006-2007, he was a member of the European Security Research Advisory Board (ESRAB) of the European Commission and presently member of ESRIF. He is also a member of the Conseil Economique de la Défense, France.
He has been awarded the distinctions of Officier de la Légion d’Honneur and Officier de l’Ordre National du Mérite.
Christian BREANT is married and has two children.