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Bio
Jean-Luc Jung is a Professor at the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle (MNHN), and a member of the Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB, UMR 7205, MNHN-CNRS-Sorbonne Université-EPHE-UA). Trained in biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Strasbourg (PhD, 1993), he began studying marine biodiversity using molecular approaches at the University of Brest as Associate Professor, before joining the MNHN as Full Professor, based at the Dinard Marine Station.
His research focuses on the biodiversity of marine life — from fish to dolphins to whales — using the tools of molecular genetics. His work has two complementary strands. The first is environmental DNA (eDNA): by filtering seawater and analysing the DNA traces that marine animals leave behind, he can determine which species have left their mark at a given site — without ever catching or disturbing them. This non-invasive approach aims to survey entire communities of vertebrates — fish, sharks, rays, marine mammals — from a single water sample. The second strand focuses on cetaceans: sperm whales, humpback whales and bottlenose dolphins. Through genetic analysis, he investigates how these animals organise their social groups, how their populations evolved over time, and what this means for their conservation. Both strands share the same underlying motivation: understanding marine biodiversity at a time when it is under growing pressure from climate change and local human activities.
He supervises three PhD students and has authored more than 38 indexed scientific publications. A large part of his work is done in close collaboration with managers and decision-makers — the French Biodiversity Agency, marine nature parks, the Abu Dhabi Environment Agency — and he contributes to scientific assessments including the CNRS-IFREMER expert review on offshore wind farms. He is regularly interviewed by the press on marine biodiversity issues.
Since 2024, he has been coordinating annual eDNA-based biodiversity monitoring campaigns in the coastal waters of Abu Dhabi — mangroves, seagrass beds and harbour areas — in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Environment Agency, as part of a research programme led by the Ocean Institute of Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi.
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