A tribute to Françoise Ruget

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our colleague Françoise Ruget, who passed away on 1 September 2026.

Françoise spent her entire career at INRAE, joining in 1975 as an ecophysiologist. From the 1990s onwards, she was one of the pioneers of crop modelling, developing the GOA and STICS models. She played a driving role in the development and recognition of STICS, notably through her work on maize and grasslands, as well as on the effects of CO₂ on plant growth. Through these contributions, she helped bring the issue of climate change into INRAE’s research agenda at a very early stage.

As leading national and international expert on forage grassland production, she led the development, in the early 2000s, of the operational ISOP system, which is still used today by public authorities to assess national forage deficits. She also carried out several projects on the assimilation of remote-sensing data into crop models, as well as pioneering work on modelling sugarcane and rice, which now provides a foundation for new research at CIRAD. Her involvement in the European and international programmes COST, MACSUR and AgMIP reflected not only her widely recognized expertise as an ecophysiologist and crop modeller, but also her ability to share her scientific questions and curiosity, constantly pushing her work further.

Throughout her career, she supported numerous PhD students, trainees and colleagues in the agricultural sector, sharing her experience and helping them to understand and take ownership of the knowledge she had mastered. Although she retired in 2018, she continued to follow the work of her former colleagues with great interest and pleasure, and continued to respond to requests for her scientific expertise right up until her final days. She passed away surrounded by her family.

Françoise was a remarkable researcher, but also a warm, cultured, curious, sensitive, humble and highly professional person. As a colleague, and for some of us also as a friend, we were fortunate to have known and worked alongside her. Her kindness and generosity with her time will be greatly missed.