Medical Doctor, an internship in surgery, specializing in sports biology and nutrition, he has taken part in numerous expeditions to the Himalayas, Greenland, Patagonia, as well as crewing for the Whitbread round-the-world race in 1977-78. In 1986 he became the first man to reach the North Pole solo overland, pulling his sled for 63 days. Between July 1989 and March 1990, he was co-leader alongside American Will Steger of the international Trans Antarctica expedition, the longest overland crossing ever accomplished: 6,300 km.

Jean-Louis Etienne is a totally committed environmentalist: he led a number of education-oriented scientific expeditions to raise public awareness of the Polar regions and to learn more about their impact on the Earth’s climate and life forms.

He is currently working on the POLAR POD project, an oceanographic platform designed to drift around the Antarctic Continent, driven by the Circumpolar Current. The Southern Ocean is key to Carbon cycle, Earth’s climate Global ocean circulation and Marine biodiversity. This expedition will last for 2 years, from 2022.