Jean-Paul Moatti is a leading figure in health economics and public health. He is an Emeritus Professor of Health Economics at Aix-Marseille University. His research has focused on health system performance, prevention policies, global health, and the economic evaluation of public health interventions, with particular attention to developing countries.

Over his career, he held several major leadership roles within the French research system. He served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (Director-General) of the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), France’s main public research institution dedicated to development studies and North–South scientific cooperation. Prior to and alongside this role, he was Director of the SESSTIM (UMR 912) joint research unit (IRD/Inserm/Aix-Marseille University) on economic and social sciences for health and medical information processes, and Director of the Institute of Public Health within the French Alliance for Health and Life Sciences.

At the international level, he served as a member of the Advisory Committee on Health Research (ACHR) of the World Health Organization, as a special advisor on international affairs to the French National Agency for Research on HIV/AIDS and Viral Hepatitis (ANRS), and as an advisor to the Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. His scholarly work spans access to essential medicines in developing countries, micro- and macro-economic analysis of health care systems, health-risk and preventive behaviors, and the measurement of health inequalities. He has published extensively in leading international peer-reviewed journals, including The Lancet, Journal of Health Economics, Health Economics, and Social Science & Medicine, and has played an active role in national and international scientific conferences and evidence-based public policy debates.