About me

Here is my bio, as initially published for my talk at the 2024 SciPy conference.

I am a long-term advocate of Python in a scientific context, known for creating Spyder, the Scientific Python IDE, and other pivotal projects like Python(x,y) and WinPython. These tools have been instrumental in making Python a leading language for scientific computing.

My academic journey began with an engineer’s degree from SupOptique (Institut d’Optique Graduate School, Paris, France), specializing in laser physics. I further advanced my expertise by earning a PhD in optics and photonics from Université Paris-Saclay, where I developed software for simulating regenerative amplification in ultra-short pulse lasers.

Professionally, I have held diverse and impactful roles. I served as a research engineer at THALES Avionics, a principal software developer at CEA (the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission), and managed the Laser MégaJoule timing and fiducial system project. Eventually, I became the Head of a Research Laboratory at CEA before transitioning to Codra, an industrial software company, where I currently hold the position of Chief Technology Officer (CTO).

Beyond my work on Spyder, I am deeply involved in the open-source software community. I have created tools such as guidata, PlotPy, PlotPyStack, and DataLab, and have contributed to numerous other projects.