Jean Martinez received both his PhD in 1972 from the University of Montpellier, at the National School of Chemistry, and his Dr Sciences Degree in 1976 from the same University, under the supervision of Professor F. Winternitz. The same year, he joined Dr E. Bricas group at Orsay, University of Paris Sud, as a postdoctoral fellow and in 1977, the laboratory of Professor M. Bodanszky at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, where he stayed until mid 1979. Jean Martinez is Full Professor Emeritus at the University of Montpellier. In 2007, he created the Institut of Biomolecules Max Mousseron (IBMM), of which he was the Director until December 2014. He was also the Head of the department of Amino Acids, Peptides and Proteins at IBMM. He served the University of Montpellier as a Member of the Scientific Council for 8 years and as Vice-President for 6 years (2009-2014). Prof. Martinez is recognized for his important contributions, at the interface of chemistry and biology, to the development of methodology in organic and peptide synthesis, the design and the synthesis of various potent and selective neuropeptide analogues, and the development of biomaterials containing biomolecules. He has published over 900 original papers, 50 patents, numerous review articles, and he has been editor of several books. In 2012, he was accepted into the « Académie Nationale de Pharmacie », France, and in 2014 into the « Real Academia Nacional de Farmacia », Spain. In 2015, he was nominated Docteur Honoris causa of the Jagellonian University of Kracow, Poland. He has received various prizes including the Leonidas Zervas Award (Barcelona, Spain 1990), the Silver Medal CNRS (Paris, France 1996), The Labbe Award (Paris, France 1996), The Mentzer Award (Caen, France 1998), the Max Bergmann Medal (Munster, Germany 2004), the Cathay Award (Shanghai, China 2006), the Akabori Award (Tokohama, Japan 2006), the Ehrlich Award (Lyon, France 2011), the Roche Johannes Meinhofer Award (Boulder Co, USA 2011), the Léon Velluz Award (Paris, France 2015) and the Rudinger Award (Leipzig, Germany 2016). He is « Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques » (2010), and « Chevalier dans l’Ordre de la Légion d’Honneur » (2011). Prof. Martinez served the European Peptide Society as French Representative, Member of the Executive Committee (1991-1998), Scientific Officer (1998-2001) and President (2001-2010).