Born in France in 1981, I moved to Canada in 2001 to continue my undergraduate studies at the University of Victoria (BC). I stayed in Canada during my Master and PhD in Astronomy, attending the University of British Columbia, and graduated in 2010. I am now working as a postdoctoral research associate at the Jodrell Bank Center for Astrophysics in Manchester (UK).

Although I am not a big fan of the actual commute (I have quite a few air travel hell stories in my repertoire), I love travelling and count a few dozens destinations on my ”been there” list. My hobbies also include classical music (symphony and opera), painting, knitting and reading (with special interests in modern fantastic novels and 19^th century French literature). I also really enjoy organising, well, pretty much anything.

• AGN Newsletter: An electronic publication dedicated to the observations and theory of active galaxies. (Editor)
• Jodcast: A podcast about astronomy including the latest news, what is in the night sky, interviews with astronomers and more. (Participant)
• 365 Days of Astronomy: A podcast which publishes one podcast per day, for all 365 days. (Check out Feb. 10, 2011)

I have always been fascinated by galaxies. The most massive ones first formed by gravitational growth of density perturbations and expend from mergers. They evolved from giant dusty star-forming objects into red, quiet elliptical galaxies, and have complex structures and dark matter content.

For the past few years, I have been focusing my interest on Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) by studying radio galaxies and their evolution. The basic principle behind AGN is the ignition of relativistic jets from the central black hole region. They are very powerful sources which are commonly classified based on e.g. morphology, spectral shape or luminosity. I have compiled a large comprehensive catalogue of radio galaxies, including morphological classification, spectral indices and redshifts, which I used to model the evolution of space densities of various AGN classes. Several aspects of AGNs need to be further examined: What are the mechanisms powering them? How do AGN form and evolve? What are the physical processes differentiating their various classes? Do galaxies undergo a single AGN phase or several?

	Centaurus A at optical and radio wavelength.

AGNs are poorly understood in the context of galaxy evolution. The accepted hierarchical model of galaxy formation and evolution predicts that, in the local universe, large old galaxies should be the bluest, most star forming objects in the Universe. However, observations contradict this, showing that these giant galaxies are almost exclusively quiescent red ellipticals. Something must then have stopped star formation, and the popular hypothesis is AGN feedback, with the jets dissipating and heating the ISM. In what proportion does this feedback contribute to the quenching of star formation? Is it sufficient to completely stop star formation in galaxies?

	Elliptical galaxy	Spiral galaxy

Going backward in time, this leads to the question of AGN origins. What are the conditions required to trigger the ignition of jets in the nuclei? This requires a knowledge of the AGN progenitors, which are currently believed to be SubMillimeter Galaxies (SMG), very dusty objects seen at high redshifts, undergoing a massive star formation phase and visible only through the submm radiation from heated dust. How do massive systems form at such early times in the Universe? How is build-up of star, dust and gas related to the growth of central black holes in massive galaxies?

Another subject related to galaxy formation and evolution that I wish to eventually investigate is the distribution of dark matter, both on galactic and inter-galactic scales and in particular detection via gravitational lensing. The mapping of the unseen mass provides us with key observations for testing theories of galaxy formation, from the creation of the first clumps of matter to the evolution of galactic structures.

	Gravitational lens (yellow-ish foreground cluster) and lensed galaxies (blue-ish elongated, ring-like features). HST image.