Eric Rivals

Eric Rivals is a CNRS Research Director in Computer Science and Bioinformatics at University Montpellier, working at the LIRMM research laboratory. He serves as co-head of the bioinformatics platform ATGC and has held significant leadership positions including Head of the Institute of Computational Biology (2015-2019), Head of the French Molecular Bioinformatics network (2010-2016), and Head of the computer science department (2007-2010).

Dr. Rivals earned his PhD in Computer Science from Lille I University in 1996, completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the German Cancer Research Center (1996-1999), and received his Habilitation from Montpellier University in 2005. His academic progression at CNRS includes Directeur de Recherche Classe 2 (2008), Classe 1 (2016), and Classe exceptionnelle (2023).

His research spans the intersection of computer science, bioinformatics, and biology with expertise in string algorithms, sequence analysis, and genomic applications. Dr. Rivals' work uniquely bridges theoretical algorithm development with practical bioinformatics solutions, particularly in cancer research and genomic analysis. His publications demonstrate consistent contributions to both computer science theory and biological applications, with recent work focusing on epitranscriptomics, cancer diagnostics, and algorithmic solutions for genomic data analysis.

Dr. Rivals has received numerous scientific recognitions including the 2025 Palmarès des inventeurs award, the 2023 Trophées de l'innovation from University Montpellier, and the 2009 Dortmunder Gambrinus Fellowship. His 2007 Genome Biology article was highlighted by Faculty of 1000 in Biology as work of exceptional significance.

He has supervised over 15 PhD students and numerous postdoctoral researchers across diverse projects. Dr. Rivals leads or participates in multiple significant research initiatives including the NUMEV project on Multiple Myeloma relapse, the EpiTransDiag innovation project, Marie-Curie ITN EURECA, and several INCA-funded cancer research projects with substantial grant funding.

As co-head of the ATGC bioinformatics platform, Dr. Rivals oversees a major bioinformatics service infrastructure that is part of France Génomique, the Institut Français de Bioinformatique, and the Cancéropôle Grand Sud Ouest networks. His team develops and maintains critical bioinformatics tools like LoRDEC for long-read error correction, which has been integrated into major analysis platforms including Galaxy.