Jean Tournadre graduated from Ecole Centrale de Lyon in 1981, received a Ph.D. in Geophysics from University of Clermont II in 1984, then a HDR on physical remote sensing methods from University of Paris 7 in 1998. He did a post doctoral research fellowship at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University de California San Diego, US, from 1984 to 1986 then was visiting scientist at NCAR, Boulder, US, in 1987. He finally got a permanent position at the Satellite Oceanography department of IFREMER, with main expertise on altimetric data processing for ocean wind, wave, current and icebergs observation.