Dr Jean-Jacques Fry graduated in hydraulics from the École Nationale Supérieure d’Hydraulique de Grenoble, subsequently obtaining a PhD in soil mechanics from the École Centrale de Paris. He has worked in Algeria and for the UNDP/OPE as a consultant in Mali, Niger, and Cabo Verde. In 1982, he joined the French utility company EDF, where he was Head of the Geotechnical Section and a senior expert in embankment dams and geotechnics.
He has worked as a consultant on more than thirty hydropower projects worldwide. He was Treasurer and General Secretary of the French Committee on Large Dams, as well as a Professor of Civil Engineering and Hydraulics at École Centrale de Lyon. He has supervised over ten PhD and research projects in geotechnics and water-retaining structures and has written over 150 publications and edited three books. He is the French representative on the International Commission on Large Dams (ICOLD) Technical Committee for embankment dams. He chaired the European Working Group on Internal Erosion.
Since 2019, he has been an independent consultant and chairman of the European Club of ICOLD. He established the consortium and co-led the Hydropower Europe Forum, and he is currently part of the ETIP Hydropower management team.