Christian Bocard, a Petroleum Engineer who graduated from IFP School and Doctor of Science (University of Paris), spent his entire career at IFP.  After research studies in petrochemistry in the field of hydrocarbon oxidation, he managed during a period of more than twenty years a number of Research and Development projects on pollution of water and soil by hydrocarbons. He has acted as technical advisor for the French Authorities responsible for accidental marine oil spills, helped set up the CEDRE (Centre of Documentation, Research and Experimentation on accidental water pollution), and represented IFP at its Technical Committee. Concerning soil and groundwater pollution, he has involved his research team in numerous field applications often in association with industrial partners, for both diagnosis and depollution studies.