Christiane Druml receives the Order of the French Legion of Honor

Christiane Druml, Director of the Josephinum - Medical History Museum Vienna and holder of the UNESCO Chair at MedUni Vienna, was awarded the Order of the Legion of Honor with the rank of "Officer" by the Ambassador of the Republic of France in Vienna, Gilles Pécout, on February 26, 2024.

This was in recognition of Christiane Druml’s close collaboration with France: the Chair of the Bioethics Commission at the Federal Chancellery has been working closely with the National Ethics Council in France for years, and she was also one of the few foreign speakers to take part in the official 40th anniversary celebrations of the French National Ethics Council in 2023.

As a member of the scientific council of the "Agence nationale de sécurité du médicament et des produits de santé" (ANSM) of the French Republic, she also advised on ethical issues relating to public health from 2017 to 2023. Prior to that, she was also involved in the reorganization of the law on clinical research and ethics committees in France.

"France would like to honor Christiane Druml in recognition of her special achievements, because she has developed the general reflections on bioethics and has been very active in the cooperation between our two countries," it said in the laudation.

About the person

Christiane Druml, a trained lawyer, was Vice Rector for Clinical Affairs at MedUni Vienna from 2011 to 2015. She is currently head of the university’s historical collections and has held the UNESCO Chair of Bioethics since 2016. Christiane Druml has also been Chair of the Austrian Bioethics Commission at the Federal Chancellery since 2007. She was awarded the City of Vienna Prize for Medical Sciences in 2020 and received the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art in 2011.