Denise Pumain trained in geography at Ecole Normale Supérieure; she was lecturer at University Paris I from 1970, researcher at the National Institute of Demography (1981–1986), Professor at University Paris 13 (1986–1989) then at University Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne, member of the Institut Universitaire de France, Former Chair of the Commission on Urban Development and Urban Life of the IGU (1992–2000), founder of the research laboratory P.A.R.I.S. (1984), Director of the UMR Géographie-cités (CNRS 1992–2000), the European Research Group S4 (Spatial Simulation for Social Sciences, 2006–2013), Cybergeo, European Journal of Geography (founded 1996), Principal Investigator of the ERC advanced grant GeoDiverCity, http://geodivercity.parisgeo.cnrs.fr/blog/ (2011–2016). Her main scientific contribution is about building an evolutionary theory of urban systems and transferring concepts and models from self-organizing complex systems toward social sciences. She was chief executive of education and research for the Académie de Grenoble (2000–2001) and first scientific coordinator for social sciences at the French Agency for research assessment (2007–2008). She was awarded Doctor Honoris Causa at University of Lausanne and Liege and silver medal of the CNRS and Vautrin Lud International Prize in Geography in 2010. She is corresponding member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences since 2009 and corresponding fellow of the British Academy since 2012. She is officer in French Order “Legion d’honneur” and “Ordre du merite.”