Biography
Please find here biographical information. A copy of my CV in the official UMD format is available here.
Bibliographical Narrative
I have been working at the University of Maryland, department of Geology, since 2007. Before that, I was a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
My hometown is near Metz, in Lorraine, North-East France. I first studied Physical Sciences at the Université Raymond Poincaré (Nancy I), now Université de Lorraine, before entering the Magistère Interuniversitaire de Physics, a multi-institution program hosted at the École Normale Supérieure, in Paris. During this program I obtained a License and then a Maîtrise of Physics from the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI) and then a D.E.A. (equivalent to a Master) in Geodynamique et Physique de la Terre organized jointly by the École Normale Supérieure and the Université Paris-Sud (Orsay). Do you follow?
The beautiful cathedral of Metz (image taken from the internet a long time ago...)
It is during this time that I became more and more interested in applying physical concepts to geology. To this day, I attempt to generate fairly simple, physics-based models of deformation and melt transport in the Earth and other planets.
During the Magistère, I had the opportunity of conducting several internships, back in Nancy, six months, in Stony Brook University, and four months in the Volcanology laboratory at Orsay.
I then moved to the United States to obtain a PhD in Geophysics at MIT's Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences department. I worked with Maria Zuber on explaining the spacing of faults in different planetary lithospheres. This journey lead me to consider the tectonics of the Central Ocean Basin, ridged plains on Mars and Venus, and more recently Ganymede and Mercury. My interest in the formation of localized shear zones comes from these projects and continues to this day.
For a postdoc, I decided to broaden my discipline by considering melt migration. I joined the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where I worked under the joint supervision of Greg Hirth and Peter Kelemen. I stayed on as a staff scientist, developing projects on mid-ocean ridge volcanism, and on postseismic deformation, two rather unrelated topics.
Now at Maryland, I have strived to lead a multidisciplinary group, where we discuss planetary sciences, volcanism, tectonics, faulting, and many other topics. Our approach remains one of applying well-understood physical concepts to Earth sciences.
The beautiful town of Verbinia, in Italy where the MYRES II meeting took place
Outside of my academic home, I have served on a number of community initiatives. First, I spent three years on the Science Steering Committee of the Computational Infrastructure in Geodynamics, where I was reporting on the activities of the melt migration working group. I also served on the Steering Committee and then the Executive Committee of RIDGE2000 from 2008 to the end of the program in 2011. I am proud of having organized the second Meeting of Young Researchers in Earth Sciences that took place in Verbania (Italy) in 2006.
I am strongly involved with the American Geophysical Union, the premier scientific organization for my discipline. In particular, I am serving as the secretary of the Study of the Earth's Deep Interior (SEDI) focus group and I am on the ballot to become president-elect of that section.
Don't forget to vote in the 2016 AGU elections!
Education
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA | |
| 1996-2002 |
Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Ph. D., Geophysics Thesis Title: Localization Instability and the Origin of Regularly-Spaced Faults in Planetary Lithospheres; Defended October 1st, 2001 |
École Normale Supérieure, Univ., Paris VI, VII, XI, XIII, Paris, France | |
| 1993-1996 |
Magistère Interuniversitaire de Physique Specializations: Geophysics, Fluid Mechanics |
University Paris XI, Orsay, France and École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France | |
| 1996-2002 |
D.E.A. Geodynamics and Physics of the Earth |
University Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris VI), Paris, France | |
| 1993-1995 |
Maîtrise in Physics Licence in Physics |
University Raymond Poincaré (Nancy I), Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France | |
| 1991-1993 |
DEUG A, Sciences Specializations: Physics, Earth sciences |
Employment
University of Maryland, College Park, MD, Department of Geology | |
| 2012-present | Associate Professor |
| 2007-2012 | Assistant Professor |
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution,Woods Hole, MA, Department of Marine Geology and Geophysics |
|
| 2007 | Associate Scientist |
| 2003-2007 | Assistant Scientist |
| 2003 | Postdoctoral Investigator |
| 2003-2007 | Postdoctoral Scholar |
École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France | |
| 12007 | Visiting Professor (one month) |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA | |
| 1996-2001 | Research Assistant |
University Paris-Sud, Orsay, France |
|
| 1996 | Intern (3 months) |
Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY |
|
| 1995 | Intern (6 months) |
University Raymond Poincaré (Nancy I), Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy, France |
|
| 1994 | Intern (1 month) |
Teaching
See class details at my Teaching page
University of Maryland, College Park | |
| GEOL100: Physical Geology | |
| GEOL200: Earth's Fury; Living with earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunami | |
| GEOL457-GEOL657: Seismology | |
| GEOL412-GEOL612: Geology of Terrestrial Planets | |
| GEOL680: Geodynamics | |
| GEOL789M: Computational Geodynamics | |
| GEOL789R: Lithosphere Geodynamics | |
MIT-WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography |
|
| 12.521 Computational Geodynamics Modeling (with Jian Lin) | |
| 12.756 Geodynamics seminar: The Early Earth (with Glenn Gaetani) | Graduate Students |
| 2015-present | Kristel Izquierdo-González |
| 2015 | João Magalhães (internship) |
| 2014-present | Joe School (Ph.D. candidate) |
| 2014-present | Alexis Martone (M.S. Candidate) |
| 2013-2016 | Mark Larson (M.S. 2016) |
| 2011-present | Hailong Bai (Ph.D. candidate) |
| 2011-2012 | Karen Paczkowski (Ph.D. Geophysics 2012, Yale University, Chapter co-supervision) |
| 2010-2015 | Stephanie Johnston (Ph.D., 2015) |
| 2010-2015 | Kevin Miller (Ph.D. 2015) |
| 2010-2013 | Lisa Walsh (Ph.D. Geology 2013, co-advisor) |
| 2010-2011 | Minjin Baek (incomplete) |
| 2010 | Michel Woné (internship) |
| 2009-2010 | Garrett Mitchell (M.S. Geology, 2010) |
| 2008-2009 | Sinead Eley (incomplete) |
| 2007 | Matthias Delescluse (PhD chapter co-supervision) |
| 2006-2007 | Patricia Gregg (PhD chapter co-supervision) |
| 2004-2006 | Caleb Mills (incomplete) | Undergraduate Students |
| 2015-2016 | John Milne, B.S. Geology with honors, 2016 |
| 2014 | David Krasner, B.S. Geology, 2015 |
| 2013-2014 | William Junkin, B.S. Geology with honors, 2014 |
| 2013 | Christine Liu, B.S. Geology, 2013 |
| 2012-2013 | Austin Green, B.S. Geology, 2013 |
| 2012 | Chris Weller, B.S. Geology, 2012 |
| 2010-2011 | James Keane, B.S. Geology with honors, 2011 |
| 2009-2010 | Kevin Miller, internship |
| 2009-2011 | Gerasimos Michalitsianos, B.S. Geology, 2011 |
| 2007-2009 | Garrett Mitchell, B.S. Geology with honors, 2009 |
| 2005 | Piyapa Dejtrakulwong, internship | Postdoctoral Researchers and Research Associates |
| 2014-2016 | Juan Rodríguez-González, University of Maryland |
| 2013-2014 | Karen Paczkowski, University of Maryland |
| 2008-2012 | Laura Hebert, University of Maryland |
| 2004-2006 | Rowena Lohman, WHOI (co-sponsor) |
| 2003-2004 | Anne Deschamps, WHOI (project mentor) |
| 2003-2004 | Adam Soule, WHOI (project mentor) |
Publications
Service
Workshop organization | |
| 2014-2015 | Venus Geodynamics and Tectonics Workshop, Pasadena, CA. |
| July 2-6, 2006 | Second Meeting of Young Researchers in Earth Sciences (MYRES II): Dynamics of the Lithosphere, Verbania (Italy) |
| September 15-17 2008 | CIG Workshop on Mathematical and Computational Issues in the Solid Earth Geoscience, Santa Fe, NM |
| August 17-18, 2006 | CIG workshop on Magma Dynamics, New York City, NY |
| 2004 (lead), 2008, 2010 (lead), 2011 (lead), 2012, 2013 | Fall AGU Meeting special sessions |
American Geophysical Union | |
| 2015-2016 | Secretary, Study of the Earth's Deep Interior focus group |
| 2014-2015 | Program Committee (SEDI representative) |
| 2010-2012 | Book Board of Editors |
| 2008-2010 | Information Technology Committee |
Geological Society of America | |
| 2012-2015 | Editorial Committee (Geology) |
Computational Infrastructure for Geodynamics | |
| 2015-2016 | Nomination Committee (Chair, 2015) |
| 2002-present | Member Institution Representative |
| 2006-2009 | Science Steering Committee |
UNAVCO and WinSAR | |
| 2008-present | Member Institution Representative |
IRIS | |
| 2012-present | Member Institution Alternate Representative |
European Geophysical Union | |
| 2011-2013 | Tectonics and Structural Geology division programme group |
| 2010 | Outstanding Young Scientist Award (OYSA) committee for the Tectonics and Structural Geology division |
Ridge2000 | |
| 2009-2011 | Executive Committee |
| 2008-2011 | Steering Committee |