Diplôme d'Études Approfondies (MSc equivalent) in Palaeontology, Sedimentology and Chronology, Earth Sciences, Université Claude-Bernard, Lyon, 1999. 
PhD, Zoology, University of Toronto, 2005.

Jean-Bernard Caron became fascinated with fossils as a child in his native France. He spent the summers of his teenaged years volunteering at archaeological and palaeontological digs in France and Spain. He joined ROM Burgess Shale field crews as a volunteer in 1998,1999, and 2000 at the invitation of late Senior Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology Dr. Desmond Collins. In 1999, Caron studied the problematic Burgess Shale animal Banffia constricta as part of his master’s thesis at the Université Claude-Bernard, Lyon. He started his doctoral dissertation at the University of Toronto in 2000 on the taphonomy and community palaeoecology of the Walcott Quarry, the original Burgess Shale site. At the end of his PhD in 2004, he had examined more than 70,000 specimens from the ROM collections. After a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Post-doctoral fellowship, Dr. Caron joined the ROM in early 2006 and became the Richard M. Ivey Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology in 2018. Dr. Caron is also cross appointed as an Associate Professor (status only) at the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Toronto.

Like his predecessor, Dr. Collins, Dr. Caron’s research focuses on fossils from the famous Burgess Shale deposit in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia. The Burgess Shale is of global significance for understanding Cambrian life. It was designated a World Heritage Site in 1980 and became part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site in 1984. The ROM has been conducting research at the Burgess Shale since 1975, and its collections, which are held in trust for Parks Canada, are the largest in the world. Dr. Caron has published on the Burgess Shale with numerous collaborators and students, producing 90 papers, including ten in the prestigious journals Science and Nature (see Publications). He leads regular summer fieldwork expeditions to explore new areas and recover Burgess Shale-type fossils under Parks Canada Research and Collecting Permits.  

Dr. Caron was recognized for his outstanding contributions to Canadian research with the Pikaia Award from the Palaeontology Division of the Geological Association of Canada. Dr. Caron is dedicated to public outreach as well as to research; he was interviewed by Sir David Attenborough in the Emmy-winning series “First Life,” and also appeared in numerous TV and radio interviews and in documentaries on Cambrian fossils. At the end of 2010, Dr. Caron launched the bilingual (French/English) Virtual Museum of Canada website on the Burgess Shale as a joint effort between the ROM and Parks Canada -- visit the updated ROM-Parks Canada Burgess Shale Website here. Dr. Caron was the lead Curator of the ROM’s permanent Willner Madge Gallery, Dawn of Life, on the second floor of the ROM. This gallery opened in 2021 and highlights the story of life from its beginnings to the evolution of the first dinosaurs and mammals, showcasing fossils from five Palaeozoic UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Canada, including a remarkable selection of more than 200 Burgess Shale specimens discovered by the ROM, many of which are new species from new localities.