As a doctor specializing in sports biology and nutrition, Jean-Louis Etienne has taken part in numerous expeditions to the Himalayas, Greenland and Patagonia. In 1986 he became the first man to reach the North Pole solo. In 1989-90 he was co-leader alongside American Will Steger of the international Trans Antarctica expedition, which used dog sleds to make the longest overland crossing of Antarctica ever accomplished: 6,300 km. Jean-Louis Etienne is also a totally committed environmentalist, and he led a number of education-oriented scientific expeditions to raise public awareness of the Polar regions and to learn more about their impact on the Earth’s climate and life forms. In April 2010, he made the first crossing of the Arctic Ocean with a balloon rozière. Its next expedition will be a 3-year mission around Antarctica aboard the POLAR POD, an international oceanographic Station, for the study of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, a major player in the Earth’s climate and an immense reserve of Marine biodiversity still unknown.