Constance Hammond is an INSERM director of research at the Mediterranean Institute of Neurobiology. A renowned Parkinson's disease investigator, in 2012 she became a Chevalier of the Légion d'Honneur in recognition for her services to scientific communication. Studying biology at the University of Pierre and Marie Curie and the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris she completed her thesis in neurosciences at the Marey Institute in Paris, directed by Prof. D. Albe-Fessard. Guided by her curiosity and her constant desire to learn, she changed lab and research domains several times. With the knowledge of other systems and the mastering of other techniques she finally came back to her first and preferred subject of research; the role of the subthalamic nucleus in the basal ganglia system in health and Parkinson's disease.