Symposium in Memory of
Jean-Pierre Guignard

June 21, 2024, Lausanne, Switzerland

Venue

Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV)

Rue du Bugnon 46, 1005 Lausanne, Switzerland

All information available on the Symposium website

Throughout his career, Jean-Pierre Guignard was honored by the University of Lausanne (Prix de Cérenville 1970; Lauréat de l’Université 1970), the Swiss Society of Pediatrics (Guido Fanconi Prize 1983), the ESPN (2005), and the International Pediatric Nephrology Association (IPNA), which awarded him the prestigious Ira Greifer Award in 2017 in recognition of his major contribution to the field of renal developmental physiology and his remarkable ability to bring people together and foster their development.
Jean-Pierre Guignard was born in a small village at the foot of the Jura Mountains. He received a classical Latin-Greek education in Lausanne, where he earned his medical degree. Toward the end of his studies, he passionately attended the lectures of Professor Georges Peters, recently appointed head of the pharmacology department, with whom he completed his doctoral thesis. He pursued his postgraduate training in London (London Hospital Medical College and St. Thomas' Hospital), Vancouver (University of British Columbia), Montreal (Royal Victoria Hospital, McGill University), and Mexico City (Hospital Pediátrico del Seguro Social). Returning to Switzerland in 1972, he established a highly dynamic pediatric nephrology unit and clinical and experimental research center. He opened a pediatric hemodialysis unit in 1974, a kidney transplantation unit in 1975, and a chronic peritoneal dialysis unit in 1978. With the support of the SNSF, he set up a basic and clinical research laboratory and developed a newborn rabbit model to investigate and better understand renal physiology in preterm infants. His clinical and research endeavors led to the publication of over 550 articles and book chapters between 1966 and 2016. He founded the European Society for Developmental Pharmacology in 1988 and the International Symposium on Perinatal Nephrology in 1998.
Driven since his university years by a social ideal, he engaged through the Swiss Sanitary Central in Vietnam during and after the war, as well as in developing countries (Algeria, Vietnam, Mexico, and particularly Cuba), providing direct medical aid, medical equipment, and pharmaceuticals, and participating in numerous teaching missions across these regions. He also organized several IPOKRATES seminars for young physicians, which contributed to the reach of the IPOKRATES Educational Foundation in Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Vietnam, Mexico, China, India, and Slovakia.