Trained as Resident in Neurology at the University of Grenoble (France), then as a molecular neurobiologist in the laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, CNRS in Gif-sur-Yvette, France, Philippe Vernier was hired as a permanent researcher (CR1) at the CNRS in 1992. He worked mostly on the molecular mechanisms of post-lesion plasticity in the mammalian central nervous system, more specifically in animal models of Parkinson’s disease. In 1993, he moved to the newly created Institute Alfred Fessard (Dir. Jean-Didier Vincent) to lead a group, which pioneered evolutionary approaches of neurotransmission, especially dopamine transmission in chordates. In 2002, he founded a research unit, still inside the Institute of Neurobiology Alfred Fessard, where several group working on the development and evolution of the nervous system gathered to foster research in the field of evo-devo of the nervous system. In 2015, Philippe Vernier created a largest Research Unit (Paris-Saclay Institute of Neuroscience, UMR9197, CNRS University Paris-Sud) gathering 19 teams in several fields of developmental and evolutionary neurobiology, behavioral neuroscience, neurogenetics and neurophysiology. He is now the head of the Frédéric Joliot Institute for Life Sciences, CEA, Saclay, France.His own research is focused on comparative biology and evolution of catecholamine systems and forebrain in Chordates, with the aim of better understanding how the different functions of these systems has been recruited along evolution, and how their dysfunctions contribute to several pathologies ( Parkinson’s disease and ADHD). A second line of research focuses on mechanisms of the development and evolution of the forebrain in vertebrates.