Monique Canto-Sperber is the President of PSL Research University (Paris), a new and innovative excellence entity that brings together 17 of the most prestigious academic institutions in Paris (such as the École Normale Supérieure, the Collège de France, the Paris Observatory, the Curie Institute, the Superior School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry, the National Chemical Engineering Institute in Paris, Paris-Dauphine University and the five most important Schools of Arts). Monique Canto-Sperber was the Director of the École Normale Supérieure (Paris) from 2005 to 2012.

Monique Canto-Sperber is a philosopher whose research interests cover Ancient philosophy, ethics and political theory. She has published several essays on Plato’s philosophy. She is the author of a number of seminal books devoted to ethics and contemporary moral issues, and has also dedicated a significant part of her work to an examination of the principles of liberalism.

Monique Canto-Sperber has taught philosophy at several French universities. She became Research Director at the CNRS in 1993. Between 2001 and 2004, she was a member of the Comité consultatif national d’éthique (French national council of ethics) and served as its Cice-President from 2004 to 2007.

Monique Canto-Sperber has been granted the highest national distinctions in France: Légion d’honneur, Officier de l’ordre national du Mérite, Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres.