Dr Thibault Datry is a senior scientist at IRSTEA (National Research Institute of Science and Technology for Environment and Agriculture) in Lyon, France. His research focuses on the ecology of rivers and hyporheic zones, with particular emphasis on intermittent rivers. In the past 15 years, he has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers and several book chapters on stream and groundwater ecology. He serves on editorial boards of two international journals, has organized two Special Issues and eight Special Sessions on intermittent river ecology management at international conferences. He is leading IRBAS (Intermittent River Biodiversity Analysis and Synthesis, http://irbas.cesab.org/), an international research program exploring biodiversity patterns in intermittent rivers at the global scale, and is Chair of SMIRES (Science and Management of Intermittent Rivers and Ephemeral Streams, http://www.smires.eu/), a pluri-disciplinary European research effort bringing together more than 200 scientists from 29 European countries.