Paul Tapponnier


Paul Tapponnier is a French geologist, specializing in plate tectonics and crustal deformation.

Education and career

Tapponnier graduated in 1970 with an M.S. in geology from the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris. From 1972 to 1975 he was a research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received in 1978 his doctorate from the Université Montpellier-II. He was an associate professor from 1980 to 1985, a full professor from 1986 to 1990, and a full professor with tenure from 1991 to 2009 at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris. In 1985 he was a visiting scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. From January to July 2000, he was a visiting professor at Caltech. Since 2009 he has been a tectonics group leader at the EOS of Nanyang Technological University.
Tapponnier was a pioneer in the 1970s in the use of satellite imagery for the study of plate tectonics. Much of his research, often in collaboration in the late 1970s with Peter Molnar, deals with Asian tectonics involving the collision of the Indian Plate with the Eurasian Plate.
Tapponnier has headed several oceanographic research cruises and many field projects in various countries. His research interests include:

Awards and honors

Articles