Jean-François Guégan is a theoretical ecologist and ecological parasitologist interested in the ecology, evolution and policy-decisions on human infectious diseases and their host vectors or reservoirs in tropical regions of the world. He obtained his Ph.D. in parasite ecology and epidemiology in 1990 from the University of Montpellier (France), and did a post-doc in 1990-1991 at Exeter University in Great Britain. In 1991, he was hired as a junior researcher at IRD, the French Institute for Research on Sustainable Development. He is full-tenured Research Professor, with the highest rank in France, in the same Institute where he led during 15 years a research group on Dynamics of Systems and Infectious Diseases in the joint national team called UMR MIVEGEC.

He recently joined the French Institute of Research for Agriculture to develop a OneHealth approach in animal health. He has worked on cholera, pertussis, measles, avian flus and West Nile virus through an integrative research perspective. He is now particularly involved in research on the neglected emerging tropical disease, Buruli ulcer in Africa and southern America, being a member of the WHO Buruli ulcer initiative group, and more generally on the theoretical relationships between biodiversity, climate change and emerging infectious diseases. As part of his duties at IRD and INRA, JFG is also an adjunct professor at Montpellier University where he is teaching a course on global environmental change and health. He is responsible for the writing of up to 160 international scientific papers, 11 hard-books and up to 150 international conferences. As a former fellow of the French High Council for Public Health, he (co)-led different French national reports on Climate Change and Health, Adaptation to Climate Change, and Emerging Infectious Diseases: research actions and planning.