Jean Virieux, fellow of Ecole Normale Supérieure (Ulm), Emeritus professor at the Univ. Grenoble Alpes (UGA) , and former senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France, is a seismologist working at the Institut des Sciences de la Terre (ISTerre). He earned his PhD in "Earthquakes: rupture and waves" in 1986 at the Univ. Denis Diderot-Paris under the supervision of Pr. R. Madariaga. He received the EAGE Cagniard Medal in 2006, the SEG Best Paper award in 2008 and a Bright Spots in 2009 with his coworkers, the Jaffé Grand Award of the Académie des Sciences in 2009, the Barrabé Award of the Société Géologique de France, the Adion Medal of the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur in 2012, and the EAGE Erasmus Award in 2013.
Virieux's research is oriented to seismic-wave propagation modeling through field experiments and theoretical modeling in heterogeneous media. Traveltime tomography based on ray theory or full-waveform inversion based on volumetric numerical methods solving elastodynamic equations allow high-resolution imaging of crustal structures (Mt. Vesuve/Italy; Corinth Gulf/Greece; Vallhall/Norway). Multiparametric reconstruction of the Earth at various scales from 3D important databases is the standing challenge of engineers and researchers in the framework of the consortium SEISCOPE supported by many industrial enterprises: Virieux was one of the co-founders of this consortium. Seismic dynamic-rupture imaging related to earthquakes has also attracted his attention (because he completed his thesis on this topic) through international collaborations.