France's controversial minister for education and research, Claude Allegre, has been replaced in a cabinet reshuffle. Jack Lang, who held the post of minister for education and culture in a previous government, becomes education minister again. Roger-Gerard Schwartzenberg takes over Allegre's research responsibilities.
Allegre, a former director of the Institut de Physique du Globe in Paris, was appointed to the government in June 1997 after a distinguished career as a geophysicist and a long association with the newly-appointed prime minister, Lionel Jospin. His controversial decisions included abandoning plans to build the SOLEIL synchrotron source in France and reducing spending on big science.
