I always felt a scientist. It's always been so deeply ingrained in my own identity, but when it came to projecting myself as an independent scientist, I didn't. I never doubted my legitimacy to be a scientist. That was not part of the question, but when it was time for me to position myself as an independent scientist, yes, it was clearly a difference. The other problem is also when I finished in a normal situation, in a more diverse situation, [I thought] people will have come to me and say, “well Yasmine, now you should apply for these positions” or encourage me. They didn't. It was part of my own self-break that I was [given] employment also, the system was not encouraging me either.

Yasmine Belkaid is a renowned scientist whose research focuses on the relationship between microbes and the immune system. She is the President as well as the head of the Metaorganism laboratory at the Institut Pasteur.

Belkaid earned her Master’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene in Algiers, and a Master of Advanced Studies (DEA) from Paris-Sud University. In 1996, she earned her PhD in immunology from the Institut Pasteur, where she studied innate immune responses to leishmania infection. Belkaid then moved to the United States for a postdoctoral fellowship in intracellular parasite biology at NIAID’s Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases (NIH).

Belkaid has received numerous awards including the Robert Koch Prize, the Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences, the Sanofi-Institut Pasteur Prize, and the AAI Excellence in Mentoring Award. She also serves on the committees of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, the Microbiome Technical Advisory Group at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the NIH Anti-Racism Steering Committee, the American Society of Microbiology, and the Genentech Scientific Resource Board.