Born in 1957 in France, Philippe Nicot received the diploma of Engineer in Agronomy (with a speciality in Plant Protection) from the Institut National Agronomique Paris-Grignon (now "AgroParisTech") in 1980. In 1985, he completed his PhD degree in Plant Pathology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. He then went to China as a postdoctoral fellow of the US National Academy of Sciences and worked in the Microbiology Department of China Agricultural University for four years (research and teaching). In 1989, he returned to France and joined INRA as a research scientist at the Plant Pathology Unit of INRA-Avignon, to conduct research on diseases of fruits and vegetables. He became head of the research group on fungal diseases, and later served from 2003 to 2008 as director of the Plant Pathology Unit.
His research interests are focused on the epidemiology and the development and durability of non-chemical control methods against greenhouse-vegetable diseases. Since 1991, he has been involved in several EU-funded research projects on biological control and/or IPM and has evaluated EU research projects as an independent expert. He teaches plant pathology and IPM in two Masters programs of the University of Avignon.
He has attended numerous IOBC/WPRS WG meetings since 1990, and participated in the local and scientific organisation of several international conferences. He has served as General Secretary of IOBC-wprs since October 2005.