I mostly grew up in a remote place of the Pyrenees mountains, in the french Catalunya region: Prunet et Belpuig, less than 50 living souls and a closest neighbour miles away. Under these privileged conditions as regards relationship to natural elements, no wonder why I became very curious about the sky.

I was quite good at understanding sciences, but my heart was also beating for philosophy and humanities: astronomy was the main driver pushing me towards studying physical sciences rather than literature. So, at the age 16, I left my beloved mountains, horses, and goats, to join Physics & Chemistry Preparatory Classes to Grandes Ecoles in Montpellier. There, I decided I did not want to enter Grandes Ecoles but dedicate myself to research instead. In 2003, I moved to Paris so as to get my bachelor degree in Fundamental Physics. When I was 21, I left France to spend 5 months in Chile and carry out a studentship at the European Southern Observatory, my first approach to professional astronomy involving the impressive 8-meters telescopes of the VLT. This incredible experience did not only make me fall in love with Chile but also confirmed my wish of transitioning from amateur astronomy to engaging a career in astrophysics, and keep planting my eyes into the sky for a few decades more.

From the passion to the job

Eventually, I came back to Paris and got a master degree in Astrophysics from the University Paris VI, then in 2006, I started a PhD project with Philippe Andre in the Astrophysics Department of CEA. We used the IRAM telescopes (30-meter telescope and PdBI interferometer) to study the physical processes at work when the youngest protostars (called Class 0 protostars) form in our Galaxy.

I obtained my PhD, with honors, in November 2009 and moved right away to Garching, Germany, to start an ESO/ALMA fellowship. The ALMA construction was barely starting when I started my fellowship, as only 3 antennas were standing on the ALMA site, and I chose to share my time between Chile and Europe so as to participate directly to the commissioning of the world s largest radio telescope, on top the Chajnantor Plateau, in the chilean Atacama desert. It was tough, but I loved it, and, when I finished my ALMA fellowship, the ALMA team had successfully put into service more than 25 antennas for the array.

At the end of 2012, I moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to start an SMA fellowship at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, aiming at using the quite unique capabilities of the SMA interferometer, located on top the Mauna Kea in Hawaii, to map magnetic fields in star forming cores thanks to dust polarization observations. I was offered a permanent researcher position in France, and therefore moved back to my home country, in 2014.

What else ?

Along the way, I always had to reconnect with mountains, trekking, hiking, climbing, camping, escaping, whenever and wherever I had the opportunity. Andes, Himalaya, Alps, Pyrenees, New England White Mountains and Icelandic volcanoes, specifics do not matter: I reach full bloom in wild spaces, carrying a heavy backpack and contemplating lonely summits in front of me.

I also love stinky cheese, photography, theater and eating snails the catalan way.

I can not ride horses anymore with this crazy parisian life, but instead I enjoy myself playing Ultimate Frisbee with the Revolutionair club in Paris.

Also, my thirst for humanities did not quench, and I still dedicate quite some time to read, write, connect to people outside the physical sciences community. I am volunteering for some projects I like, such as helping teaching astronomy in developing countries with the GalileoMobile team, promoting the diffusion of documentary movies in working-class neighborhoods of Paris with the association Belleville en Vues, or enhance general awareness about HIV/AIDS with the non-profit organization Solidarité Sida.