The Dja Biosphere Reserve: Bridging Ecology and Sustainable Development

Author Biography

Télesphore Sime‐Ngando is Director of Research of Exceptional Class (DRCE) at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), in environmental microbiology, within the Microorganisms: Genome and Environment Laboratory (UMR CNRS-UCA 6023). His research relates to the study of microorganisms from the three major domains of life (Bacteria, Archaea, Eukarya) and viruses, at different levels of integration, from molecular and cellular aspects to the roles of these organisms in aquatic ecosystems. He was appointed to the IRD as its Representative (Director) in Central Africa from 2023 to 2025. He was director of the UMR CNRS LMGE for ten years (2012-2021), at the same time as he was the CNRS Project Manager for DIPEE (Ecology and Environment Partnership Scheme) of the Auvergne sub‐region. He was a member of the executive office and leader of actions in the Federation of Environmental Research (FRE) of Clermont‐Ferrand. He initiated the creation and co‐directed the “Zone Atelier Territoires Uranifères” (ZATU) which brings together around twenty laboratories nationally in France. He was also at the initiative of the creation in 2015 of the Auvergne branch of “Biologie Sans Frontière, BSF”, an NGO which helps medical analysis laboratories in developing countries. He was elected member of Section No. 30 (Continental surface and interfaces) and of Interdisciplinary Commission No. 52 (Environments and society: from fundamental to operational) of the French national research committee, and appointed member of the Sectoral Scientific Commission No. 3 of the Institute of Research for Development, France. He has been a member of the office and scientific council of the Life Sciences Health Agronomy Environment (SDVSAE) doctoral school at the Clermont‐Ferrand site. During his thirty‐year career, Télesphore Sime‐Ngando has supervised around twenty doctoral students and as many post‐doctoral students. He has provided postgraduate teaching in France and abroad, notably as a visiting professor in around ten foreign universities. He is the author and co‐author of more than 70 books, book chapters and reviews and more than 200 articles in international scientific journals. He is the Editor‐in‐Chief of the Journal “Aquatic Ecology” at Springer‐Nature since 2018.