Ethel Moustacchi

Moustacchi left France to pursue postdoctoral studies in the United States and collaborated with Donald Williamson in Herschel L. Roman's laboratory at Washington State University in Seattle.^[2]

In 1966, she returned to France and took over as head of the radio-biology laboratory at the faculté des sciences d'Orsay, a satellite branch of l'Institut du radium, and focused her research towards study of DNA damage.^[2]

In 1985, she returned to the Curie Institute's Paris site, taking over Raymond Latarjet's laboratory and focusing on the mechanisms of mutagenesis and DNA repair through a pathophysiology approach to chemotherapy and radiotherapy induced cancers. She also worked for over a decade on Fanconi's anemia, a rare genetic disease affecting the bone marrow.^[1]

Moustacchi headed the joint CNRS/Curie Institute UMR218 unit until her retirement in 1998.^[2]

In 1995, she became scientific advise for biology at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission.^[1]

Moustacchi was the author of over 200 publications by the end of her career.^[6]

Moustacchi died in the 14th arrondissement of Paris on 13 December 2016.^[7]

Moustacchi was appointed Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1999 and promoted to Officier in 2013.^[1][8]

In 2011, Ethel Moustacchi received the Prix d'honneur de l'Inserm for her life's work.^[9][10] She was also the recipient of the Pierre and Marie Curie Medal from the International Society for Radiobiology in French.^[1]

In 2026, Moustacchi was announced as one of 72 historical women in STEM whose names have been proposed to be added to the 72 men already celebrated on the Eiffel Tower. The plan was announced by the Mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo following the recommendations of a committee led by Isabelle Vauglin of Femmes et Sciences and Jean-François Martins, representing the operating company which runs the Eiffel Tower.^{[11][12][13][4]}