Paul Tapponnier (6 January 1947 – 24 December 2023) was a French geologist, specializing in plate tectonics and crustal deformation.

[1][2] Tapponnier graduated in 1970 with a MS in geology from the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris.

Since 2009 he has been a tectonics group leader at the EOS (Earth Observatory of Singapore) of Nanyang Technological University.

Tapponnier headed several oceanographic research cruises and many field projects in various countries.

His research interests included: Tapponnier died on 24 December 2023 in Beijing, at the age of 76.