Jean-Pascal Torréton is senior scientist at IRD. His major qualifications include a PhD in biochemistry and microbiology from Aix-Marseille University in 1991, and an accreditation to supervise research in from Montpellier University in 1999.

His research focused on the role of heterotrophic bacterioplankton on the fate of marine ecosystems under anthropogenic pressures such as nutrient enrichments, metal contaminations and black carbon release. This research was done within multidisciplinary projects led in a wide range of marine ecosystems such as coastal lagoons of West Africa, Equatorial Atlantic Ocean, SW Pacific Ocean, Tuamotu atoll lagoons, New Caledonian lagoon, northern coastal waters of Vietnam and has been presented in more than 50 publications and 80 communications in symposia.

He has taught marine microbial ecology and marine biogeochemistry at the University of French Polynesia, the University of the South Pacific in Suva (Fiji), and the University of Science and Technology of Hanoi (Vietnam).

Member of various scientific commissions and scientific councils, he has participated in numerous international juries for the recruitment of scientists, the evaluation of research projects and oceanographic campaigns, as much as in peer reviews for several international journals.

He was representative of IRD in Vietnam and in the Philippines (2011-2017), and since August 2017 is heading the IRD-CNRS-Cirad joint Representative Office in South Africa.