Louis Legendre : Professor emeritus at the Pierre and Marie Curie Paris 06 University, France, and Laval University, Canada. Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Academy of Science.

Chair, Scientific Council, Oceanographic Institute, France and Monaco.

Director of the Villefranche Oceanography Laboratory, France, from 2001 to 2010.

Fields and topics of research: biological oceanography, marine biogeochemistry, numerical ecology, and philosophy of science.

Prizes and honours include: Order of Saint Charles (Principality of Monaco), International Ecology Institute Prize, G. Evelyn Hutchinson Award (American Society of Limnology and Oceanography), Highly Cited Researcher (Institute for Scientific Information), Honorary Doctorate from the University of Liege (Belgium), Quebec Prize in Pure and Applied Sciences.

Publications: 234 refereed papers, 9 full books, and 10 book chapters. H index: 42.