Professional Career Highlights
My professional trajectory combines research leadership, laboratories, distributed e-infrastructures for data and services, international cooperation, scientific diplomacy, innovation and operational implementation. Across all positions, one objective has consistently guided my work: turning Earth observation, environmental data and Earth system sciences into trusted capacities for research, public policy and sustainable territorial development.
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Work Experience
Professional history and impact
Earth system data and services | France and Europe
Leads projects such as GAIA Data and European projects
Since 2017, I have served as Director of Data Terra, the French national research infrastructure for Earth system and environmental data and services.
Data Terra brings together 34 organizations, universities and public institutions, including CNRS, CNES, INRAE, Ifremer, IRD, Météo-France, IGN, BRGM, MNHN and other major national partners. It mobilizes more than 450 scientists, engineers and data experts, connects hundreds of service centres, and involves more than 600 research laboratories and thousands of multidisciplinary experts. With more than 20,000 regular users and around EUR 45 million per year in consolidated resources, Data Terra is structured around five national data hubs covering the main compartments of the Earth system — ocean, atmosphere, solid Earth, continental surfaces and biodiversity — and develops cross-cutting services to address major planetary challenges, from climate change impacts and biodiversity loss to natural-resource degradation, environmental risks and sustainable public action.
Under my leadership, Data Terra has become both a major distributed infrastructure and a broad ecosystem built with research communities, public institutions, innovation actors, private partners and users. Recognized as France’s reference research infrastructure for Earth system and environmental data and services, it is connected to major European infrastructures in the field and now serves as the EOSC environmental node. It provides access to satellite data, in situ observations, models, FAIR services, advanced processing, storage, computing and AI-ready capacities
Its ambition is to make the best of Earth system science data and services accessible and usable for research, public policies, innovation and society. Data Terra acts as a research infrastructure that bridges the richness of Earth system science data, multidisciplinary expertise and societal needs, helping institutions, users and communities anticipate, understand and address the systemic transitions required by climate change, biodiversity loss, natural-resource degradation and environmental risks.
Scientific diplomacy | Brasília
As IRD Representative in Brazil and Paraguay, I led scientific diplomacy from within the French Embassy, working with Brazilian institutions, federal ministries, research agencies, universities and international organizations.
I supported cooperation with INPE, CNPq, CAPES, FAPs, ACTO and several Amazonian countries institutions, while developing France-Brazil and Europe-Brazil cooperation on biodiversity, water, climate, forests, ocean observation and sustainable development.
This period included the coordination of Guyamazon program, the development of regional Amazonian partnerships, South–South cooperation on land degradation, and broader France–Europe–Brazil–South America–Africa initiatives linked to COP agendas and international environmental conventions.
2001 to 2013 - Earth observation, geospatial sciences and sustainable development
I directed and co-directed multidisciplinary research laboratories, service units and remote-sensing centres involving more than 200 researchers, engineers and technical experts. These structures connected Earth observation, geospatial sciences, integrated approaches to environments and societies, and decision-support systems for sustainable territorial development
These structures brought together researchers, engineers and technical teams across Montpellier, French Guiana, La Réunion, New Caledonia, Brasil, North, Ouest and Central Africa and international field sites.
This period supported major initiatives such as GEOSUD for France, Europe and North Africa, and the development of an intertropical network of remote-sensing centres — including SEAS-Guyane, SEAS-Réunion, SEAS-Gabon and GEOSUD — combining very-high-resolution satellite ground stations, long-term data access, training, capacity development and innovation. It also included EU–AU cooperation through AMESD, GMES-related activities, international training programmes and regional observatories for tropical and island territories.
Institutional strategy and space applications
As adviser to the IRD Directorate-General on geospatial and space applications, I contributed to the development of IRD’s spatial strategy and to the positioning of Earth observation as a cross-cutting tool for research, international cooperation, expertise, innovation and sustainable development.
I worked with CNES, ESA, the French Ministry of Research and early GMES-related initiatives, including as a member of the “Terre et Espace” committee chaired by José Achache, which helped prepare project consortia that prefigured GMES services, later to become Copernicus
Regional Geospatial Lab (LRT) - Amazonian ecosystems - remote sensing
I directed the Regional Remote Sensing Laboratory of French Guiana and served as Acting Director of the ORSTOM Centre in Cayenne, at a time when ORSTOM was becoming IRD.
My work focused on Amazonian coastal ecosystems, mangroves, forests, environmental monitoring, Ariane 5 environmental impact assessments, Petit-Saut dam monitoring, illegal gold mining, maritime surveillance, urban dynamics and decision-support systems.
This period laid the foundations for later SEAS-Guyane developments and for long-term cooperation with Brazil and the Guiana Shield countries. As coordinator of the ECOLAB regional programme on coastal ecosystems, I contributed to the emergence of cross-border cooperation between French Guiana and Brazil, extending from coastal dynamics to forests, biodiversity and environmental monitoring. I also helped promote the development of space-based remote sensing in French Guiana, Amapá, Pará and Amazonas, working with universities such as UFPA and Brazilian institutions including IEPA, MPEG and INPA
CREED / Compagnie Générale des Eaux, now Veolia
At CREED, the environmental research centre of Compagnie Générale des Eaux, I contributed to the development of research and innovation activities in environment, energy and waste management.
I coordinated scientific and technical activities for the international INTEC-EUREKA programme, involving European partners and sub-projects on integrated waste management, intelligent automation and decision-support systems.
This early experience introduced me to industrial innovation, applied AI methods and the transformation of research into operational environmental services.
AT&T Bell Laboratories / Brookhaven National Laboratory / ORSTOM French Guiana
My early career combined applied physics, scientific instrumentation, biodiversity databases and environmental information systems.
At AT&T Bell Laboratories and Brookhaven National Laboratory, I worked on synchrotron-based X-ray magnetic diffraction and instrumentation.
At ORSTOM French Guiana, I designed scientific databases and data-management tools for biodiversity and environmental research, while contributing to remote sensing, hydrobiology and oceanography activities.
Engineering degree
École Centrale Méditerranée / ENSPM — Engineering Degree, Master’s level
Training in applied physics, instrumentation, electronics, signal processing, computer science and management.
This scientific and technical background provided the foundation for later work in remote sensing, environmental information systems, data infrastructures and Earth observation services.
Education
Education & Executive Training
organizational change, societal impacts and economic models.
It is directly relevant to the implementation of Earth Intelligence, where science, institutions, users, technologies and policy decisions must be connected.
Auditor Diploma and highest-level university certificate, “Deciding with Science / Décider avec les sciences”, RS5232.
This executive programme focused on science-based decision-making, systemic transitions, public policy,
Institut des Hautes Études pour la Science et la Technologie — IHEST
Executive training - Competency certification: "Applying the scientific approach to high-stakes decision-making"
This experience strengthened a research-engineering profile later applied to Earth observation, geospatial sciences and environmental data infrastructures.
Early research experience in a world-class scientific environment, focused on synchrotron-based X-ray magnetic diffraction, scientific instrumentation and applied research.
AT&T Bell Laboratories / Brookhaven National Laboratory
Early professional experience in Research and Development within the private sector
