Diplômes

Expérience professionnelle

2002  - 2006 : Palaeoclimate Research Scientist - Met Office Hadley Centre - UK

2006 - now : Chercheur qualifié du FNRS

2006 - now : Chargé de cours UCL

Academies

Professeur Invité du Collège Belgique (2010)

membre du Collège des Alumni

membre du Comité de Géodésie et de Géophysique de l'Académie Royale

Comités (Belgique)

Adminstrateur et membre du conseils de la Revue des Questions Scientifiques

Commissions Scientifique, section 'Sciences Exactes et Naturelles - 4 (SEN-4)', Fonds National de la Rercherche Scientifique

Comités (International)

Editeur, Reviews of Géophysics

Cours

Ma recherche concerne, de façon générale,les méthodes d'inférences dans le système climatique combinant les observations avec des simulations climatiques.

Mon expertise s'est davantage portée sur les paléoclimats. Les méthodes d'investigation combinent l'analyse statistique Bayésienne, les systèmes dynamiques et les simulations climatiques.

Mots clés : climat, paléoclimats, filtre à particules, statistiques, systèmes dynamiques

Projet principal, financé par un 'starting grant' de l'ERC:

ITOP : Intégrer la Théorie et les Observations au cours du Pleistocene . Vous découvrirez sur ce site (en Anglais seulement) l'ensemble des concepts, théories, collaborations etc. mis en œuvre dans ce projet

Autres projets :

EMIS : Il s'agit de l'autre projet ERC portant sur les paléoclimats, dirigé par André Berger. EMIS se concentre sur les périodes interglaciaires.

Past4Future

Climatology has a very fraught history. Originally a sub-discipline of traditional fields of study such as physics, geography, geology and ecology, it is now regarded as the science of the climate system. The climate system is one of the most complex systems that can be studied, and conventional experimental methods do not seem applicable to it. I am a physicist and have been studying the climate system since 1998.  Twelve years of experience have led me to reflect both on the foundations of current physical climatology and on its place in relation to society.

The raison d'etre of my research project is to enhance transparency and reproducibility of climate research. Large climate simulators such as general circulation models constitute an important element of evidence to construct climate theory, but they are not self-sufficient. In fact they have become experimental tools because of their intrinsic complexity. 

How should we use general circulation models ? How do we quantify uncertainties ? What is a theory in climatology ? Is it really necessary that a whole generation of young climate scientists spend most of their time solving technical issues implied by running a GCM, while proving largely ignorant of basing principles of inference and dynamical system theory ? Which difference should one do between a model and a simulator ?

It turns out that a good use of modern statistics and and bit of philosophy provides answers and strategies to resolve these difficult questions. Bayesian statistics offer a framework to formalise the processes of model calibration and selection in presence of uncertain information. Beside them, dynamical system theory offers the language and concepts necessary to articulate important ideas, such as limit cycles, resonances and predicatibility

My ERC-project : "ITOP " is rooted into these questions. The ambition is to provide scientists with a better interface to put in relation the impressive data extracted from deep-sea, ice core and speleothems, with the wealth of information provided by general circulation models.

Beyond the technical challenges, this is, before all, a wonderful experience into highly disciplinary subject, where scientists with different paradigms have to communicate, understand each other's need, and collaborate.

Biographie

Diplômes

Expérience professionnelle

2002  - 2006 : Palaeoclimate Research Scientist - Met Office Hadley Centre - UK

2006 - now : Chercheur qualifié du FNRS

2006 - now : Chargé de cours UCL

Academies

Professeur Invité du Collège Belgique (2010)

membre du Collège des Alumni

membre du Comité de Géodésie et de Géophysique de l'Académie Royale

Comités (Belgique)

Adminstrateur et membre du conseils de la Revue des Questions Scientifiques

Commissions Scientifique, section 'Sciences Exactes et Naturelles - 4 (SEN-4)', Fonds National de la Rercherche Scientifique

Comités (International)

Editeur, Reviews of Géophysics

Enseignement

Cours

Recherche

Ma recherche concerne, de façon générale,les méthodes d'inférences dans le système climatique combinant les observations avec des simulations climatiques.

Mon expertise s'est davantage portée sur les paléoclimats. Les méthodes d'investigation combinent l'analyse statistique Bayésienne, les systèmes dynamiques et les simulations climatiques.

Mots clés : climat, paléoclimats, filtre à particules, statistiques, systèmes dynamiques

Projet principal, financé par un 'starting grant' de l'ERC:

ITOP : Intégrer la Théorie et les Observations au cours du Pleistocene . Vous découvrirez sur ce site (en Anglais seulement) l'ensemble des concepts, théories, collaborations etc. mis en œuvre dans ce projet

Autres projets :

EMIS : Il s'agit de l'autre projet ERC portant sur les paléoclimats, dirigé par André Berger. EMIS se concentre sur les périodes interglaciaires.

Past4Future

Philosophie de Recherche

Climatology has a very fraught history. Originally a sub-discipline of traditional fields of study such as physics, geography, geology and ecology, it is now regarded as the science of the climate system. The climate system is one of the most complex systems that can be studied, and conventional experimental methods do not seem applicable to it. I am a physicist and have been studying the climate system since 1998.  Twelve years of experience have led me to reflect both on the foundations of current physical climatology and on its place in relation to society.

The raison d'etre of my research project is to enhance transparency and reproducibility of climate research. Large climate simulators such as general circulation models constitute an important element of evidence to construct climate theory, but they are not self-sufficient. In fact they have become experimental tools because of their intrinsic complexity. 

How should we use general circulation models ? How do we quantify uncertainties ? What is a theory in climatology ? Is it really necessary that a whole generation of young climate scientists spend most of their time solving technical issues implied by running a GCM, while proving largely ignorant of basing principles of inference and dynamical system theory ? Which difference should one do between a model and a simulator ?

It turns out that a good use of modern statistics and and bit of philosophy provides answers and strategies to resolve these difficult questions. Bayesian statistics offer a framework to formalise the processes of model calibration and selection in presence of uncertain information. Beside them, dynamical system theory offers the language and concepts necessary to articulate important ideas, such as limit cycles, resonances and predicatibility

My ERC-project : "ITOP " is rooted into these questions. The ambition is to provide scientists with a better interface to put in relation the impressive data extracted from deep-sea, ice core and speleothems, with the wealth of information provided by general circulation models.

Beyond the technical challenges, this is, before all, a wonderful experience into highly disciplinary subject, where scientists with different paradigms have to communicate, understand each other's need, and collaborate.

Publications