Member of the Scientific Council of the CarMa Chair
Jean-François Soussana is Vice-President of the Institut national de la recherche agronomique (INRA) in Paris and is in charge of international affairs.
He began his career at the INRA in Clermont-Theix in 1986, where he conducted research on the connection between agronomy and ecology, specialising on grassland legumes.
In the early 1990s, he focused on the increase of CO2 levels in the atmosphere. He ran one of the first INRA laboratories on climate change, grassland ecosystems and the greenhouse effect.
His expertise was quickly sought for international projects. Since 1998, he is part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). He is the lead author of the 3rd, 4th and 5th assessment reports on the impacts of climate change. He shares with the rest of the authors the Nobel Peace Prize, awarded to the IPCC in 2007.
From 2010 to 2017, he was INRA's Scientific Director for the environment.
He has served in many international scientific committees, including:
- the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases (GRA);
- the Climate Knowledge and Innovation Community (Climate KIC) of the European Institute of Technology and
- the Lima-Paris "4 per 1000" initiative launched by France during the COP21.
Jean-François Soussana is an agricultural engineer from the Institut national d'études supérieures agronomiques of Montpellier (Montpellier Supagro). He has a doctorate in plant physiology from the University of Montpellier.