Jean-Marie Hombert was appointed director of the CNRS Department of Humanities and Social Sciences as of January 1, 2002. Since January 1, 2005 he has been in charge of the CNRS inter-regional Direction for the South-east.

Jean-Marie Hombert was born on November 2, 1948 in Etricourt (Somme, France).  He holds a degree in computer engineering (INSA, Lyon), and a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley. He also has a "doctorat d'état" (doctorate) in linguistics from the University of Provence.

Since 1980, Jean-Marie Hombert has been pursuing two careers: as a teacher and a researcher. He has been Professor of Linguistics at the Lumière-Lyon 2 University since then, and has also devoted much of his activity to the organization, development and evaluation of research.
From 1991 to 1996, Jean-Marie Hombert was Vice President of the Lumière-Lyon 2 University and was responsible for research and document policy. He has directed the Dynamics of Language Laboratory since 1994.

On the international level, he has been the Director for France of the European EUROCORE program, "The Origin of Man, Language and Languages" since March 2001. He is also responsible for the CNRS international program of scientific cooperation devoted to "cognitive aspects of linguistic changes" (Dynamics of Language - University of California).

In France, he holds various elected and administrative positions of responsibility as a member of: the National Committee of Scientific Research since 1996, the National Committee for the Development of the Humanities and Social Sciences (1998 – 2001), the Scientific Committee of the Lumière-Lyon 2 University, and the Scientific Committee of the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations. Jean-Marie Hombert also coordinates the CNRS program entitled "The Origin of Man, Language and Languages," and is a member of the Group of Spoken Communication of the French Society of Acoustics.

In the Rhône Alpes region, he coordinated, in conjunction with François d'Arcy, the Rhône-Alpes Agency of Social Sciences and Humanities from 1996 to 2000. He was also a member of the jury for doctoral fellowships for this region from 1996 to 1999.
Jean-Marie Hombert was Chairman of the Board of the Ecole normale supérieure of Fontenay-St Cloud from 1998 to 2001.

Since 1996, Jean-Marie Hombert has been focusing his research on three main themes: the origin and evolution of language and languages; the automatic identification of languages; and cognitive aspects of linguistic changes (development of models and use of techniques of neurological imaging in linguistics).

He has published many works. He participates in the peer review committees of "CNRS Editions" and of the journals "Studies in African Linguistics" and "Linguistique africaine." He is also rapporteur for the "Journal of African Languages and Linguistics" and the "Journal of Phonetics."