Director of Engineering Science for Army research department
Christelle Combescure (ENS Paris-Saclay 2007) has always been fascinated by architecture and human constructions, and is now a Maître de Conférences in Mechanics and Civil Engineering at the Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan Military Academy. Her research focuses on new, complex materials - architectured materials - the behavior of which, particularly instability phenomena under compressive loads, is modelled to guarantee the safety of people and infrastructures.
A multi-disciplinary path
Christelle Combescure wanted to be an architect, but opted for scientific preparatory classes to take the competitive entrance exam for the École des Ponts et Chaussées. In the end, she was accepted at ENS Paris-Saclay, where she fell in love with research in civil engineering and later in mechanics. "Bridges will always amaze me, and I can't look at cracks in concrete without wondering why they're there," she comments. For the time being, the young student is passionate about seismic phenomena and their consequences on the resistance of building materials. "I decided to spend my Master 1 internship at the École Polytechnique in Montreal to see their seismic table in action," she explains. She then followed up her Master 2 internship (studying a reinforced concrete plate model for seismic loads) with a CIFRE thesis at EDF. She defended her thesis on September 25, 2013. "Five days later, I left for the United States to complete the first year of my post-doctorate at the University of Minnesota, while the second year was spent at the École Polytechnique in France."
Time for research
After a detour at SAFRAN Tech, where she held a position in research & development from 2015 to 2017, Christelle found a position as a Maître de Conférences at the Université Gustave Eiffel, combining research in Mechanics at the MSME laboratory and teaching in Civil Engineering. In 2020, the Saint-Cyr Military Academy offered her a position as a Maître de Conférences (in the Ministry of Defense), where she teaches Mechanics to the Army officer cadets. Since 2023, she is also in charge of the Engineering Sciences for the French Army division of the Academy's multidisciplinary research center, CReC.
Her research is also conducted at the Institut de Recherche Dupuy-de-Lôme (IRDL) in Lorient, where she is an associate researcher. "My work focuses on new materials: architectured materials. Introduced in the 2000s, they are extremely useful in many sectors because they are very light, while retaining excellent mechanical properties, she explains. But instability phenomena can lead to the ruin of these materials, or create new physical properties of interest. So it's very important to be able to predict them!"
No gender for disciplines!
When it's pointed out to her that she tends to work in a man's world, she readily agrees. "I'm used to it, because it's the rule in my chosen discipline. But for me, no discipline has a 'gender'. Math is difficult for boys too. So, if you like it, go for it! You've got to have the nerve to do it!" It's a message that Christelle has always endeavored to pass on to young high-school girls, notably through her work with the "Elles bougent" association and the C.Génial foundation.
