Thomas Finet, Manon Thueux, Mathilde Vigneron and Hugo Zaccomer have been selected to be the first four Biodiversity officers of the Bougainville Mission.

They will undergo dedicated training at the end of July at the Villefranche marine station and then join the Lanvéoc Poulmic naval school in September before joining their crews in Noumea and Port-des-Galets.

They will then begin the Bougainville Mission to observe the oceanic microbiome, using frugal sensors from ships that are not scientific vessels. Thanks to quantitative imaging and sequencing techniques, they will inaugurate a mission as innovative as it is promising. 

For more information on the Bougainville Mission, visit: https://mission-bougainville.fr/

A second class of six biodiversity officers will be selected from among the students of the Sorbonne University Alliance to embark during the academic year 2024-2025. The call for applications will be launched in the fall of 2023.