Jean-Robert Pitte is a professor of geography and urban planning at the University of Paris-Sorbonne, where he was president from 2003 to 2008; in 2006, he established the University of Paris-Sorbonne at Abu Dhabi. He is a member of the Institut (Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques), president of the Société de Géographie and of the Académie du Vin de France. He proposed the recognition of the “gastronomic meal of the French” to Unesco for the list of intangible cultural heritage.