Jacqueline Heurtault began her scientific career in the laboratory of Prof. R.M. May (Paris University, Orsay), studying the effects of colchicine on tissue grafts between different strains of mice. In 1962, she entered the Laboratoire de Zoologie (Arthropodes) of the Natural History Museum in Paris and began work on her thesis on the anatomy, biology and systematics of pseudoscorpions, under the direction of Prof. Max Vachon. She obtained her doctorate in 1972 and was promoted to Maître-Assistant the following year. Most of her subsequent work was devoted to the systematics of pseudoscorpions, but she also published on Amblypygi, Uropygi and Palpigrades. Her aim was obtain a holistic view of the species, combining anatomy, biology and systematics, as reflected in work on sexual characters and phoresy in pseudoscorpions. Together with Max Goyffon, she was responsible for the postgraduate course on venomous animals at the MNHN. She was appointed deputy director of the Laboratoire in 1988 and became a Professor in 1992.

At the fourth international congress of arachnology (Paris, 1968), Jacqueline Heurtault was elected the Secrétaire-général adjoint of the newly formed CIDA and later (Panama, 1983) the Secrétaire général. As such, she was responsible for the day to day running (including the finances), help with the organization of the international congresses of arachnology, and the production of the Listes des Travaux, the Annuaires and Arachnologia. After Françoise Saunier’s departure in 1985, these tasks took up an increasing amount of her time, and the death of Chantal Laroche left her without secretarial assistance. Her own failing health, combined with uncertainty concerning the future of the Laboratoire, forced her to resign, precipitating the creation of the ISA (see Arachnologia no. 15 and American Arachnology no. 59). She was unanimously elected an honorary member of the CIDA at the Chicago Congress (1998), in recognition of over 30 years of faithful service to the arachnological community.