top of page

Page Summary

CV

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Approximate Optimization Methods

Reinforcement learning, heuristic design.

Decision Problems

Markov Decision Process, Structured Decision Making, Adaptive Management

Spatial Statistics

Markov Random Field, Kriging, Reaction-Diffusion, Log Gaussian Cox Process, Boolean model.

Ecological Applications

Management of Invasive Species, Weed Sampling, Monitoring Schedule, Expert Ellicitation, Reserve Site Selection.

PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

EDUCATION

2008 - 2009

University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse - France.

2nd year master in Mathematical Engineering.

2007 - 2008

University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse - France.

1st year master in funadamental Mathematics.

2004 - 2007

University of La Rochelle, France.

Bachelor in Computer Science and Fundamentals Mathematics.

LANGUAGES

Matlab and R

French (Native) and English (Fluent).

OTHER INTERESTS

Rugby union since I have 5 years old. I played pretty seriously until the University but doing it mostly for fun from then. Nonetheless, I always found a rugby team, no matter where I have been.

 

Sailing. I always wanted to sail and I had my first experience during my first year of PhD thesis, where I took a two weeks internship at the Glénans. The first week was dedicated to the development of  theoretical and practical skills and the second week was a cruise with 8 other students. From then I never stopped! I started on the Mediterranean see by asking random peoples in the dock if they needed help and I ended few years later to be part of a crew doing serious regatta in Melbourne, Australia.

 

Outdoor activities. For me a good week-end is a week-end that I spend outside. And there is plenty of opportunity: hiking, kayaking, biking or even a short walk.

 

Road tripping. My taste for road trip starts as early as my 18 years old when we crossed France to end in Barcelona with my best friend. I made it more seriously in Australia, where I drove with my van from Melbourne to Perth by driving through the desert. That was approximately a 16,000kms road trip! I did it again when I drove from Gainesville Florida to San-Francisco California and back. I particularly like the liberty of a road trip with a van, you don't have plan and you can take your time when you most want to. I have been lucky enough to visit two gorgeous countries with diverse treasures. 

ABOUT ME

I have always been attracted by sciences and especially mathematics, so it was nearly naturally that I went to the University of La Rochelle, France, where I received my Bachelor degree in fundamental mathematics in 2007. I had the opportunity to grow solid basis in mathematics and computer science and developed my analytical skill. I absolutely loved to study fundamental mathematics but was disappointed by the lack of real-world applications. So I moved in the University of Paul Sabatier in Toulouse, France, where I received a master degree in Applied Mathematics. By this time, I had absolutely no idea of what it looks like to be a researcher, just something probably inaccessible for me. Even if my initial plan was to find a work in the industry, I also prospected for an internship in a research lab.

Then I had the extraordinary chance to meet Dr. Nathalie Peyrard and Dr. Régis Sabbadin at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research, where I achieved my master thesis in 2009, on the design of adaptive sampling method using kriging and a Boolean model. From then, I knew that I found my way and that my objective was now to become a researcher. I continued with them and Dr. Sabrina GABA for my PhD thesis on the design of adaptive sampling method with an application to weed sampling at the field scale. My PhD work involved different aspects, from modeling weed spatial distribution with Markov random field and modeling the weed sampling cost, to the design of an adapted reinforcement-learning method to compute near-optimal sampling strategy. I had the chance to work in different labs during my PhD: in a lab in Toulouse, France, with applied mathematicians, statisticians and computer scientists and in a lab in Dijon, France, with agronomists, ecologists and weed scientists. I learned a lot from the interactions with peoples from different field and finally never missed fundamental mathematics. I realized that I was equally interested by the method and the application, which changed my vision of the mathematics: from “principal personal interest” I reclassify it to “incredibly powerful tool”.

Once I completed my PhD in 2012, I left France to make a one year postdoc at the University of Melbourne, Australia, with Dr. Cindy Hauser and Prof. Roger Cousens to work on a project of management of orange hawkweed, an invasive species in the Australian Alps. I specifically worked on the improvement of the monitoring schedule of this invasive species. Then, research provides me much more than having an interesting job; it offers me the chance to collaborate with peoples from a different culture and to discover a new country. After this first experience, I decided not to stop here and left for another postdoc at the University of Florida, United State, in 2014. Supervised by Dr. Christina Romagosa and Dr. Fred Johnson, I have the chance to build on my mathematical skills to work on various projects from the management of Burmese pythons and the Argentine black and white tegu in south Florida, to the design of creative heuristic for the dynamic reserve design problem.

Bio
bottom of page