My vocation for astronomy came relatively late, which may be partly assigned to unhelpful Belgian weather. After a Star Wars marathon left me with more questions about life in our Galaxy than known exoplanets back then, I undertook a bachelor in Physics, followed by a master in Space Sciences, at the University of Liège. During my master program, I was fortunate to meet Olivier Absil who facilitated an internship at ESO Santiago with Dimitri Mawet and Julien Girard. During the internship, I had the chance to go twice at Paranal to improve the calibration procedure of VLT/NACO. By the end of this amazing 3-month stay, my eyes were filled with stars and I wanted to continue with a PhD.
In March 2013 I joined the team of Simon Casassus at the University of Chile for a PhD on imaging of interactions between circumstellar discs and embedded planets, which became a joint-supervision thesis with Olivier Absil. This gave me the chance to observe many times at the VLT. After graduating from my PhD in July 2018, I went on another adventure as a postdoc in the land down under. I joined the team of Daniel Price and Christophe Pinte at Monash University (Melbourne), and further sharpened my skills in planet-disc observation and modeling.
In September 2021, I returned to my alma mater for a FNRS postdoctoral fellowship. I joined the PSILab, and turned lead developer of the high-contrast imaging package VIP. In September 2023, I paused the fellowship for a postdoc position at KU Leuven dedicated to JWST data analysis, and started diving into the reduction of MIRI-MRS, NIRCam and NIRSpec data on protoplanetary disks.
In December 2025, I started a permanent staff scientist position at the IRFU institute of CEA Paris-Saclay. My main activities continue to revolve around planet-forming disks, prototoplanet and circumplanetary disk detection and characterization using JWST, and (soon) using the future workhorse of thermal infrared astronomy - the Extremely Large Telescope first-light instrument METIS.
Aiming for the stars.
CEA, Paris-Saclay, France
Staff scientist (Ingénieur Chercheur)
PSILab, University of Liège, Belgium (+ KU Leuven from 01/09/2023 onwards)
F.R.S.-FNRS Research Fellow (+ PRODEX postdoctoral researcher)
SPH group, Monash University, Australia
Postdoctoral researcher
University of Chile & University of Liège
Ph.D. in Astronomy
University of Liège
M.Sc. in Space Science
University of Liège
B.Sc. in Physics
The bird that would soar above the plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings.
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy