BAKALOWICZ Michel

Michel Bakalowicz is a Doctor of Natural Sciences, Université Paris-6, after a postgraduate doctorate in karst hydrogeology from Taurus, Turkey. He worked at CEMAGREF, in the Hydrology Division (1971-1972). Then he completed his thesis on the contributions of geochemistry and isotopes to the understanding of the genesis and functioning of karst aquifers under the direction of Bernard Gèze and René Létolle from 1972 to 1979, at the Laboratoire Souterrain of the CNRS in Moulis, Ariège. He was then seconded to Mac Master University, Hamilton, Ontario, to study underground paleoenvironments using isotopes and U/Th radiochronology (1981-1982). The methodological developments to which he contributed led him to act as a scientific referent of karst in numerous studies applied for BRGM and the Ministries of the Environment and Cultural Affairs (1983-1994). He was made available to BRGM as a scientific advisor when the Unité Hydrogéologie des milieux hétérogènes was created in Montpellier to develop research in karst hydrogeology (1995-2004). Finally, as part of the cooperation with Lebanon, he is seconded to the IRD to manage the Centre Régional de l’Eau et de l’Environnement de l’École Supérieure d’Ingénieurs de Beyrouth (2004-2008), where he is in charge of teaching, supervising theses and leading regional research programmes. From 1995 to 2008, it was attached to the HydroSciences Montpellier Laboratory laboratoire HydroSciences Montpellier. He has been a lecturer in karst hydrogeology and water geochemistry at the universités de Paris-6, Toulouse, Avignon, Montpellier and Beirut. He has also been an expert with the IAEA to lead and evaluate projects on karst water resources in Haiti, Morocco, Algeria, Syria and Lebanon and has led scientific cooperation projects in China.