Boullier Henri

Biography

My research focuses on the production and contestation of knowledge about industrial toxic substances. I study how chemical entities—and the ways of measuring them—contribute to (re)defining toxicity and our knowledge of contaminated environments.

My current research examines environmental pollution linked to the discharge of chemical and pharmaceutical substances. I am particularly interested in measurement technologies and the infrastructures implemented to manage these contaminations. As part of the ANR STATIC project, our team analyzes detection and quantification tools and practices for waste (chemical residues, antibiotics, bacteria, resistance genes), and what they reveal about our chemical ecologies. This work builds on my long-standing research: after exploring molecular categorization practices in chemical regulation (a central theme of Toxiques légaux, published by Éditions La Découverte), I now take the substances themselves as my object of study, focusing on their measurement, forms, materialities, and what they tell us about our understanding of global contamination.

In recent years, I have been a Visiting Scholar at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and have taught at EHESS, École des Ponts ParisTech, University of Paris-Est, Paris Cité University, and PSIA. As part of collaborative projects, I have co-organized several conferences on chemical and pharmaceutical substances, which have contributed to the publication of special journal issues and collective volumes.

• Keywords: Science & Technology Studies, sociology of public action, chemical substances, antibiotics, industrial pollution, environmental health.

Publications