Jozée Sarrazin worked 25+ years as a deep-sea benthic ecologist. She has contributed to the understanding of the structure and functioning of deep-sea ecosystems, with a particular focus on hydrothermal vents and seeps. She has proposed one of the first succession models for vent communities and was involved in the first long-term temporal study of this ecosystem, using data from deep-sea observatories. She was strongly involved in the development of ecological modules to monitor the temporal dynamics of vent ecosystems. She has a strong involvement in outreach activities. Her dual career (research/outreach) has been acknowledged by the yearly award of the Faculté des Sciences of the Université du Québec à Montréal in 2008. She led the Ifremer Deep-Sea laboratory for 6 years. She participated to over 30 oceanographic cruises with submersibles (including 2 as a PI) and to 8 manned submersible dives (Alvin & Nautile).

Clémence Cotten is a data manager with a multidisciplinary degree in biology and geomatics specialized in the marine environment. She is in charge of the technical secretariat of the Repository Administration Service (SAR), the data catalogue and web-sites for the French Marine environmental Information System (SIMM). She also represents France at the Technical Group on Marine Data and IT (TG Data) of the MSFD.