Curriculum Vitae

Positions

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille
2013 – present
Full time researcher (permanent position)
European Southern Observatory, Chile
2015
Operation Staff Astronomer
VLT/SPHERE co-instrument scientist
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, France
2012 – 2013
Postdoc in the planetary system group (GSP), working with Claire Moutou
University of Exeter, United-Kingdom
2010 – 2012
Associate Research Fellow, working with Jenny Patience
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, France
2010
Research engineer in the instrumentation R&D group (GRD)

Education

Institut d'Optique Graduate School, Orsay, France
2003 – 2006
Graduated with honours
Specialty: optical design and signal processing

Awards and Distinctions

2021 CNRS Bronze Medal (national award): CNRS annoucement, local announcement, officiel video, official ceremony
2016 CNRS prize for scientific excellence
2015 Research grant from the City of Marseille
2012 Invited researcher position at CRAL (Lyon, France) for one month
2006 Graduated with honours from Université Jean Monnet (St Etienne, France)

Grants

2023 – 2027 PI - ANR - 730 k€
Project MIRAGES on the multi-resolution analysis of giant exoplanets, in collaboration with OCA, IPAG, and LESIA.
2020 – 2022 PI - CNRS/INSU/CSAA - 75 k€
Funding hardware for HiRISE at the VLT
2017 – 2023 PI - ERC - 1.5 M€
Project HiRISE to couple high-contrast imaging with high-resolution spectroscopy at the Very Large Telescope
2014 – 2016 Co-I - CNES - 56 k€
Validation and chracterization of CoRoT and Kepler/K2 exoplanet candidates with VLT/SPHERE. 2 years postdoc funding for Roxanne Ligi.
2014 – 2016 PI - Provence-Alpes Côte d'Azure - 60 k€
Analyse de Surface d’Onde à haute performance pour la Recherche et la caractérisation de planètes EXtra-solaires (ASOREX)
2013PI - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille - 10 k€
Design and manufacturing of a stop-less Lyot coronagraph.
Regular Co-I - French "national programs" (ASHRA, PNP) - several k€/year

Projects appointments

2023 – today CNES representative in the CPP (coronagraph community participate program) of Roman/CGI
Lead and coordinator of the "CPP France" team (25 members)
2019 – today Co-I of the SPHERE+ upgrade project
2017 – today PI of the HiRISE visitor instrument for the VLT
2016 – today Member of the E-ELT/HARMONI science team
Coordinator of the WG5 "Exoplanets and disks"
2016 – today Member of the PLATO consortium
Coordinator of WP144 100 "Imaging Analysis Tools"
2017 – 2021 Associate member in the RST/CGI Science Investigation Team (SIT)
2015 Co-instrument scientist of SPHERE at ESO
2015 Member of the SPHERE instrument operation team
2014 – 2022 Co-I of the SHINE large observing program with SPHERE
2013 – 2022 Main coordinator of the SHINE workpackage on exoplanet characterization
2012 – 2015 Co-instrument scientist of the SPHERE/IRDIS instrument
2009 – 2014 Co-I of the NaCo-LP large observing program
2006 – 2009 Responsible of the laboratory and on-sky testing of the ZEUS sensor in the Active Phasing Experiment

Scientific and Administrative Responsabilities

Councils, committees and expertise groups
2024 Member of the ESO Observing Programmes Committee (OPC) for 2 semesters
2023 Member of the INSU scientific prospective committee
Group III.4. Organisation Nationale, articulation Europe et International, lead: Vanessa Hill
2021 Member of a working group to define management guidelines at CNRS (Référentiel des Compétences Managériales)
2021 External reviewer for HST Cycle 29 proposals
2019 – 2023 Member CNAP national recruitment committee. Rank B assessor of the committee
2017 – 2018 Member of the ESO Observing Programmes Committee (OPC) for 3 semesters
2015 Proposals reviewer and technical feasibility at ESO
Regular Member of PhD committees (J. Lannier, F. Cantalloube, P. Janin-Potiron, R. Pourcelot, K. Barjot)
Regular Referee for astrophysics and optics journals
Regular Review for funding agencies and programs:
• Chilean national fund for scientific & technological development (CONICYT/FONDECYT)
• Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
• Mexican Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CANACYT)
Domaine d’Intérêt Majeur ACAV (DIM ACAV)
• Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)
• European Commission (H2020 programs)
Local involvement
2023 Member of the search committee for a new LAM director
2021 – today Member of the sustainable development group (DevDur) at LAM
2018 – today Member of the laboratory council at LAM (CL)
2018 – today Member of the instrumentation steering committee at LAM (CPI)
2017 – today Member of the ERC coaching group at Aix-Marseille University (CERCle)
2013 – 2014 Co-representative of the exoplanet group at the LAM scientific council
2007 – 2009 Student representative at the LAM and OAMP scientific councils
Conference and seminars organisation
2024 SOC member for the conference Two HoRSEs (~200 participants)
2022 SOC member for the session Origine de l'eau et de la vie at the SF2A annual meeting
2022 SOC member for the workshop ExoELT (~50 participants)
2019 SOC member for the workshop AO4ASTRO (~60 participants)
2015 SOC member for the conference OHP 2015: Twenty years of giant exoplanets (~100 participants)
2015 SOC member for the Journées Scientifique de l'ONERA (~50 participants)
2013 LOC member for the workshop Exoplanet validation (~50 participants)
2012 – 2013 Co-organisation of the seminars at LAM
2011 – 2012 Co-organisation of the astrophysics seminars at the university of Exeter

Teaching and Supervision

PhD students
2023 – today Allan Denis. Full supervision (100%)
Provisional title: Exoplanet characterization at high spectral resolution with VLT/HIRISE
2022 – today Lisa Altinier. Co-supervision (50%) with E. Choquet (LAM)
Provisional title: Development of image processing methods for the detection of exoplanets in reflected light with the NASA Roman Space Telescope
2020 – 2023 Chen Xie. Co-supervision (50%) with E. Choquet (LAM)
Traitement d'images avancé pour la détection directe d'exoplanètes avec les imageurs haut-contraste au sol
2019 – 2023 Mona El Morsy. Full supervision (100%)
Development of a prototype instrument for the characterisation of young giant exoplanets
2018 – 2022 Mathis Houllé. Co-supervision (70%) with P. Figueira (ESO) & Elyar Sedaghati (ESO)
Combining high-contrast imaging and high-resolution spectroscopy for exoplanet observations
2016 – 2019 Anne-Laure Cheffot. Co-supervision (30%) with S. Lévêque (ESO) and E. Hugot (LAM)
Co-phasing measurement for segmented mirrors
2012 – 2015 Alice Zurlo. Co-supervision (30%) with C. Moutou (LAM) and R. Gratton (INAF/OAPD)
Characterization of exoplanetary systems with the direct imaging technique: towards the first results of SPHERE at the VLT
Postdocs
2021 – 2023 Jean Costes. Postdoc ERC
Preparation of HiRISE commissioning and observations
2018 – 2021 Gilles Otten. Postdoc ERC
Performance simulation for the SPHERE/CRIRES+ coupling and support in the development of the prototype for SPHERE
2015 – 2017 Roxanne Ligi. Postdoc CNES
Combining Kepler and SPHERE for the detection and characterization of exoplanetary systems
2014 – 2015 Graeme Salter. Postdoc ANR
Exploitation of the first on-sky data of VLT/SPHERE
Engineers
2019 – 2023 Maxime Lopez. Optical engineer
Final design and AIT for the HiRISE instrument
2021 Alexandre Viret. Mechanical engineer
Final mechanical design of the HiRISE instrument
2018 – 2020 Yannick Charles. Mechanical engineer
Mechanical design of the fiber injection module of HiRISE
2016 – 2019 Raphaël Pourcelot. Optical engineer apprentice from Institut d'Optique Graduate School
Upgrade of the MITHIC high-contrast imaging testbed. Implementation of fiber injection on MITHIC
MSc and BA interns
Multiple students supervised or co-supervised:
M. Batista (MSc, 2012), M. Read (BA, 2012), L. Ben Assayag (MSc, 2013), R. Lucchesi (MSc, 2016), S. Tourenq (BA, 2017), E. Robert (MSc, 2018), J. Hulin (MSc, 2018), B. Rouzé (MSc, 2018), P. Cristofari (MSc, 2019), X. Devos (MSc, 2020), J. Rosain (MSc, 2022), R. Cadet (MSc, 2024).
Lectures and practical classes
2021 – 2022 Lecture on exoplanet imaging at Aix-Marseille University (MSc level, 4 hours)
2010 – 2015 Lecture on coronagraphy at Aix-Marseille University (MSc level, 12 hours)
2010 – 2014 Examiner for the BSc in optics at Aix-Marseille University (MSc level)
2011 – 2012 Astronomical data reduction at the University of Exeter (BA level)
Other
2015 Adaptive optics, coronagraphy and high-contrast imaging course at ESO
2015 Training on SPHERE of ESO fellows, night astronomers and Telescope and Instrument Operators
2012 – today Multiple contributions to projects from high-school and university students

Observing Experience

PI or Co-I on more than 90 observing programmes at ESO, Gemini, CFHT or on HST since 2009, totaling more than 4000 hours of telescope time in open time or GTO programmes.

2020 – 2021 VLTI/GRAVITY: participation to observations for the ExoGRAVITY large programme
2015 VLT/UT3: 110+ nights as ESO staff astronomer on SPHERE, VIMOS and VISIR
2014 VLT/SPHERE: 30 nights for the commissioning of the instrument
2010 VLT/NaCo: 2 nights of observations
2008 VLT: 10 nights on the visitor instrument APE
2005 MOPRA radiotelescope: 7 nights

Invited seminars and talks

11-2023 seminar; Physical Research Laboratory of Ahmedabad (India, remote) [slides]
10-2023 seminar; LAM general seminar [slides]
02-2023 seminar; STScI (US) [slides]
04-2022 seminar; ULiège (Belgium, remote) [slides]
05-2021 seminar; NASA ExEP Technology Colloquium Series (US, remote) [slides, recording]
05-2021 seminar; Uppsala University (Sweden, remote) [slides]
11-2020 seminar; ETH Zürich (Switzerland, remote) [slides]
10-2020 seminar, Exoplanet Research Centre; Cambridge (UK, remote) [slides]
03-2019 talk, workshop AO4ASTRO; Marseille (France) [slides]
01-2019 seminar; University of Göttingen (Germany) [slides]
01-2019 seminar, CEA Department of Astrophysics (DAp); Saclay (France) [slides]
06-2018 talk, workshop high-dispersion spectroscopy; Caltech (USA) [slides]
01-2018 seminar, R&D seminar at Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille; Marseille (France) [slides]
12-2017 seminar, University of Exeter; Exeter (UK) [slides]
11-2017 seminar, California Institute of Technology; Pasadena (USA) [slides]
09-2015 seminar, Centro de Astrofisica de Valparaiso; Valparaiso (Chile) [slides]
07-2015 seminar, Space Telescope Science Institute; Baltimore (USA) [slides]
12-2013 seminar, Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope; Weimea (USA) [slides]
05-2012 seminar, Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon; Lyon (France) [slides]
11-2009 seminar, Centre de Recherche Astrophysique de Lyon; Lyon (France)
09-2009 talk, workshop Measuring the Atmospheric Spectrum of Extrasolar Planets; Exeter (United-Kingdom)

Press releases

List of press releases for astrophysical or instrumental results where I have made a significant contribution

2024 Imager des planètes lointaines : la France coopère avec la NASA pour un démonstrateur embarqué sur le télescope Nancy Grace Roman: CNES, CNRS, OSU Pytheas
2023 First light for HiRISE, an innovative instrument designed for the study of exoplanets: CNRS
2021 ESO telescope images planet around most massive star pair to date: ESO
2021 Celebrating two decades of SPHERE challenges and achievements: CNRS, LAM
2017 HIP 65426 b, the first exoplanet discovered by SPHERE: CNRS, LAM
2014 First light of VLT/SPHERE: CNRS

Outreach

2023 Chapter for the outreach book Étonnante physique, edited by CNRS
2022-08 Public conference for the yearly Nuit des Étoiles national event, (Martigues, France)
2022 Discussion with high-school classes on exoplanet science with JWST in the context of the national event Les Cordées de la Réussite (Marseille, France)
2021 Intervention in the science show La Méthode Scientifique on national French radio France Culture (phone interview)
2021 Intervention in the science show CQFD on national Swiss radio La 1ère (phone interview)
2019-07 Participation to an outcreach event for the total solar eclipse in La Silla (Marseille, France)
2019-03 Outreach conference for Association Andromède (Marseille, France)
2019 Intervention in the science show La Méthode Scientifique on national French radio France Culture (phone interview)
2018-05 Pint of Science (Martigues, France)
2018-03 Presentation in front of elementary school classes (Bourgoin-Jailleu, France)
2018 Invited to the science show La Tête au Carré on national French radio France Inter (Paris, France)
2018 Participation to the Looking for new Earth documentary produced by BBC and France 5
2014 Conference on the first images of VLT/SPHERE (St Michel l'Observatoire, France)
2012-12 Conference for an association of amateur astronomers (La Ciotat, France)
2012-11 Conference at a national event Recontres du Ciel & de l'Espace (Paris, France)
2011 Astronomy and optics presented to children in elementary school (Exeter, United-Kingdom)
2006 Guide in a museum exhibition dedicated to astronomy (Marseille, France)
Regular Public conferences in France (associations, amateur astronomy meetings)
Regular Participation to outreach events for the French Fête de la Science
Regular Presenting the work of an astronomer to classes (from elementary school to high-school)