Patrick d’Hugues is a microbiologist with a PhD in Biotechnology. In 1997, he did a post-doc in Warwick University on High Temperature Bacterial Leaching. From 1997 to 1999, he worked as a R&D Engineer in LaSource Mining company. He joined BRGM in 1999 and spent 1 year in Uganda on the first industrial plant producing cobalt using bioleaching technology. From 2004 to 2010, he worked as Project Manager at BRGM and was the General Coordinator of a European R&D project (FP6 - Bioshale). He was also involved in EU funded R&D projects such as BioMinE and ProMine. From 2010 to 2018, Patrick was the Team Manager of BRGM R&D team working on process development & environmental analysis in the field of mining and recycling. From January 2019, he is the Head of Mineral Resources and the Circular Economy scientific programme at BRGM.