Jim Edmond Riviere was born March 3, 1953, in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He attended New Bedford High School from 1968 to 1971. He served as the director of the Buttonwood Park Zoo in New Bedford from 1974 to 1976. From 1974 to 1975 he wrote the column for the in New Bedford. He attended Boston College from 1971 to 1976 and earned a bachelors degree in biology and a masters degree in endicrinology. He received a D.V.M. and a Ph.D. in pharmacology from Purdue University.

In 1981 Riviere joined the faculty of the College of Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State University. His primary research focus is the development of pharmacokinetic models to study the absorption and transport of drugs and chemicals across the skin. Results of his studies have been used to develop transdermal drug delivery approaches as well as revise risk assessment approaches for topical chemical exposure to occupational and environmental chemicals. In the veterinary arena, his modeling approach is applied to food safety in the prediction of drug and chemical residues in the edible tissues of food-producing animals.

Riviere is the co-founder and co-director of the United States Department of Agriculture-supported Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank and the Director of the Center for Chemical Toxicology Research and Pharmacokinetics at North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine. He is a past president of the Dermatotoxicology Specialty Section of the Society of Toxicology, and has been a member of the editorial board of as well as . He is also a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Zeta, and Sigma Xi and has served on the science board of the United States Food and Drug Administration.

In 1991 Riviere was awarded the Ebert Prize from the American Pharmaceutical Association, the Harvey W. Wiley Medal and the FDA Commissioner's Special Citation. In 1999 he received the O. Max Gardner Award from the Board of Governors from the University of North Carolina.

Riviere has been the editor of the and has published more than 400 full-length research papers and chapters, authored and co-authored ten books in pharmacokinetics, toxicology and food safety, and holds five United States patents. He has had extramural research support from both government and industry totalling over 15 million dollars on grants for which he was the principal investigator.

In 1976 Riviere was married to Dr. Nancy Monteiro. Dr. Monteiro-Riviere is a professor of investigative dermatology and toxicology in the College of Veterinary Medicine at North Carolina State. They have three children: Christopher, Brian and Jessica.