Jean-Francois Minster

The 1998 Fridtjof Nansen Medal is awarded to Jean-Francois Minster for his pioneering work in applying satellite altimetry to oceanography.

After a post doctoral fellowship in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at MIT (USA), Jean-Francois Minster became in 1985 the director of the laboratory in Toulouse dealing predominantly with space observations applied to Oceanography such as satellite altimetry for the French-American Topex Poseidon mission. In 1990 he was appointed director of the Institute for Earth Sciences, representing a group of about 100 scientists and technicians at the University “Paul Sabatier” in Toulouse and in 1997 he became director of the French “Institut des Sciences de l’Univers” which is part of the National Centre for Scientific Research.

Professor Minster has a broad range of scientific expertise from geochemistry to general circulation in the Oceans and he was pioneer in satellite altimetry applied to Oceanography.

Professor Minster is a worthy recipient of the EGS Fridtjof Nansen Medal for Oceanographic Research for his pioneering work in applying satellite altimetry to oceanography.

Newsletter 67, 37, 1998