Jean-Michel PONTIER

Born on February 28, 1968 in Aix-en-Provence (France)

EDUCATION

He is licensed as a medical doctor in diving medicine with the French Armed Forces since 2002, and is working at the Diving School (Ecole de Plongée) in St.Mandrier.
He is a member of the French Society of Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine (MedSubHyp) since 1999, holds a Master's Degree in Physiology and Extreme Environments (2005).

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND

He is a professional diver and mine-clearance diver, certified sports medicine and emergency medicine specialist. He has worked at the St. Anne Hospital hyperbaric centre (Toulon, France) from 2002-2004 and has in that period also participated as on-call physician for the hyperbaric centre of the Font-Pré Hospital. In 2005 he served as on-board physician for the Clipperton Atoll expedition, together with Dr Jean-Louis Etienne. For this mission, he participated in the elaboration of a therapeutic re-immersion protocol for treating decompression disorders in remote areas.

SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITIES AND PUBLICATIONS

He has been author or co-author of 8 peer-reviewed scientific papers and 15 scientific conference presentations, on the specific aspects of military diving (more in particular navy seals), military rebreather diving (epidemiological study) and factors increasing the risks for decompression pathology (clinical study). He participated in the experimental studies demonstrating the protective effect of physical activity on decompression bubble formation. At this time he is investigating, for a Master Thesis, the mechanisms of platelet activation during decompression, using an animal model of decompression sickness.

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