Jean-Pierre Mahy got an ENSCP (Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Paris) engineering degree in 1979. He prepared a Thesis of doctor-engineer ENSCP, under the direction of Mrs. P. Battioni and D. Mansuy at the Chemistry Laboratory of ENS ULM (12/1980-12/1982) working on the interactions of monosubstituted hydrazines with hemoproteins. After he got his Diploma of Doctor-Engineer ENSCP (December 15, 1982) he was appointed as a CNRS researcher in the lab Directed by D. Mansuy). He then prepared a “Thèse d’Etat“ on the nitrene transfer reactions catalyzed by metalloporphyrins under the supervision of D. Mansuy, which he defended on September 24, 1986. He then spent a Post-doctoral internship in the laboratory of Professor S.J. Benkovic (Pennstate University, USA, 10/1991-10/1992), during which he started a new field of research concerning catalytic antibodies with a metalloporphyrin cofactor that he named “hemoabzymes”. Back to France he was promoted Research Director at the CNRS in October 1996.

He then moved and was appointed as a Professor in chemistry at the University of Paris-Sud 11, on September 1st, 1999, where he took successively the head of the Laboratory of Bioorganic and Bioinorganic Chemistry (LCBB, 01/2000–12/2008) and of the Institute of Molecular Chemistry and Materials of Orsay (ICMMO) (01/2009-12/2014). Starting from this date, he developped with his research group within the Bioorganic and Bioinorganic Chemistry Team (ECBB) of ICMMO, research thematics centered on "the design and synthesis of new metal complexes and the study of their interactions with biomolecules", including model metalloporphyrinic complexes for Hemoproteins, Non-Heme 2 iron-metalloenzymes (methane monooxygenase) and model complexes, and Artificial metalloenzymes. Since September 2014 he has been promoted Professor Outstanding Class 2.

Since march 1st 2012 he is Director of the Laboratory of Excellence "Chemistry of Multi-functional Molecular Architectures and Materials" (LabEx CHARM3AT) (about 600 people, from 8 southern partners of Paris: Paris-South University, Versailles-Saint-Quentin University, Evry University, Ecole polytechnique, ENS Cachan, Ecole Centrale Paris, CNRS, CEA) and  since January 1st 2016 he is the Head of the Chemistry Department at the University of Paris-Saclay.

He is co-author of 94 publications, 7 book chapters, 2 patents. His h factor is 25 (WOS), 29(Google Scholar) with more than 2250 citations. He delivered 46 invited conferences and 60 oral communications in national and international congresses, and 43 invited seminars in French and foreign academic laboratories.