Dr. Jean-Marc Bonnet-Bidaud is an astrophysicist in the Astrophysical Department of the French Atomic Energy Commission (C.E.A.), and specialises in high energy astrophysics and in the study of highly condensed stars in the Galaxy.

He is involved in several international collaborations to search, locate and study new sources of X-rays and gamma-rays in the Galaxy by means of space astronomy and is currently taking part in scientific programs, using the European satellites XMM (X-ray Multiple mirror Mission, XMM) and INTEGRAL (International Gamma-ray Astrophysics Laboratory).

He is also deeply interested in the history and popularisation of astronomy and is the scientific adviser of the French astronomy magazine Ciel et Espace having published numerous articles in different magazines and newspapers. He is mainly interested in the history of modern cosmology and in the roots of ancient astronomy in China and Africa.

He is currently carrying out research works on the roots of astronomy in Africa and China. After publishing results concerning the rate of star explosions in the Galaxy and the colour change of the star Sirius deduced from historical Chinese reports, he is now involved in a systematic study of the oldest Chinese Star Charts to evaluate their scientific content.