Graduated "Civil Engineer of Naval Constructions" from the ULg (University of Liège) in 1970, Jean MARCHAL first made a career at the FNRS (National Fund for Scientific Research) where he became Research Director in 1985. He passed then gradually in the academic body to become Full Professor in 1998. He completed a doctoral thesis in 1975 in the field of inland navigation. He then tackles the problem of the action of the wake of boats on the banks of the canals, which leads him to be interested in the action of waves on structures, the domain of research carried out as part of an aggregation thesis in higher education that he defended at ULg in 1981. To enable research and study of river and sea transport, he gradually broadened his skills to the analysis of transport systems analysis. The results of his research have been the subject of some 240 publications and 150 conferences around the world. About fifteen national and international scientific prizes have been awarded to him as well as two titles of “Doctor Honoris Causa”. He is a full member of the Royal Academy of Overseas Sciences of which he was the president and of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts of Belgium (class "Technology and Society"). Very active at the local level in various regional economic development projects, he is notably the initiator of the idea and therefore one of the founders of the “Logistics in Wallonia” Cluster, which has become one of the Competitiveness Poles of the Marshall Plan (pole of the Walloon government). His expertise is recognized internationally since he is regularly requested as an advisor by various international organizations (World Bank, Asian and African Development Banks, United Nations, European Union) and various governments (France, Netherlands, Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina, Tunisia, Indonesia, Vietnam). He obtained the High National Merit from the Vietnamese government for his contributions for more than fifteen years in the fields of education, teaching and training, honor awarded for the first time to a foreigner. He is became a honorary citizen of two important cities of the State of Sao Paulo in Brazil.  He developed several training centers in emerging and developing countries, the most important of which is the "Training Center for Inland Navigation and Ferries, IWTC (river and port engineering and management) of Palembang (Indonesia) which became an ASEAN center. He also coordinated continuing training programs for many African trainees (Zaire, Congo, Senegal, Burundi...), Asians (Bangladesh, Thailand, Indonesia, China...) and South Americans (Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, Argentina...) on behalf of Public or Private Organizations, Belgians and foreigners (since 1978). On the basis of this important international experience, he was called as Vice-Rector for International Relationships of the ULg from 2009 to 2014. He was then admitted to retirement.