Scientific Director, Total (as of 01/10/06)
Tour Coupole
2, place de la Coupole
FR - 92078 Paris LA DEFENSE Cedex

Tel: 01 47 44 58 57
Fax : 01 49 44 44 94
E-mail address: jean-francois.minster@total.com

Born: September 9, 1950 (Seefeld-Autriche).

1973 Ingeneer Ecole Polytechnique

1979 Docteur d'Etat-ès-Sciences Physiques.
Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (Geochemistry and Cosmochemistry Laboratory).

1980-1981 Post-doc Fellow Physical Oceanography, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences MIT (USA).

1981 Creation and Direction of Physics and Chemistry of Hydrosphere Laboratory (Paris)

Summer 1982 Invited Scientist at Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory of Columbia University (USA).

1985-1996 Creation and direction of Geophysics and Oceanography Laboratory (Toulouse)

July 1986 Visiting scholar, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (USA), July 1986.

1990-1996 Director of Institut of Earth Sciences, University Paul Sabatier (Toulouse)

1996-2000 Director of Institut National des Sciences de l'Univers and Département des Sciences de l'Univers au CNRS

2000-2005 Chairman of the board and Executive Director of Institut Français de Recherche pour l’Exploitation de la Mer (IFREMER)

2005 - CNRS in charge of scientific strategy

Research

Chronology of meteorites and the formation of the solar system
Inverse problems of trace elements in magmatic series
Chemical geodynamics
Deep Ocean Hydrothermalism
Ocean cycle of trace metals and carbon
Ocean circulation and satellite altimetry
Monitoring of ice cap using satellite techniques