Jean-Paul Laumond is Director of Research at LAAS-CNRS in Toulouse. He heads the Gepetto research group, whose work focuses on the computational foundations of anthropomorphic movement, both in humans and in artificial systems (humanoid robots and digital mannequins). He teaches robotics at the ENS. A high school mathematics teacher at the start of his career, he defended a thesis in robotics at Toulouse's Paul-Sabatier University, before joining the CNRS in 1985. In the 1990s, he coordinated two European projects devoted to the algorithmics of motion planning and its applications. In 2000, he helped set up Kineo Cam, which he managed for two years: the company develops software components that are now well established in the virtual prototyping sector for the automotive and aeronautics industries. Back at LAAS-CNRS, from 2005 to 2008 he co-directed the Franco-Japanese JRL laboratory dedicated to humanoid robotics.

He held the Liliane Bettencourt Technological Innovation Chair at the Collège de France from 2011 to 2012.

Jean-Paul Laumond passed away on December 20, 2021.