About me

I'm a first-generation college graduate who grew up in the rural countryside of France. In 2001, I moved to Guadeloupe in the Caribbean, where I graduated from high school and began my undergraduate studies in general biology. My academic path then took me across the globe: after starting in the Caribbean, I moved to the Indian Ocean and earned a B.S. in Biological Sciences with a focus on organismal biology from the University of Reunion Island. I continued with a Master's program in environmental science and coastal ecosystems at La Rochelle University in mainland France, before returning to the Caribbean to complete a Master's degree in Tropical Ecology and a Ph.D. in Physiology and Biology of Organisms, Populations, and Interactions.

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My doctoral research explored the symbiosis between marine snails and Sporozoan endobionts, revealing their ecological significance and potential value for conservation efforts, particularly for species like the Queen Conch. I then pursued postdoctoral research at the University of Vienna, where I focused on chemosynthetic microbial symbioses similar to those found in deep-sea ecosystems. A second postdoc brought me back to the Caribbean to study chemosynthetic symbiosis between nematodes and bacteria, expanding my expertise in marine microbiology.

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In 2018, I was offered a position as a Project Scientist in California, with a dual affiliation at the Laboratory for Research in Complex Systems (LRC) and the DOE Joint Genome Institute, part of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. My work there centered on large chemosynthetic bacteria, leading to the discovery of Thiomargarita magnifica, the largest and most complex bacterium described to date. This groundbreaking research laid the foundation for my current role as an Assistant Professor at University of California Santa Barbara. At UCSB, I lead a lab that investigates the evolution of biological complexity and the diversity of microbial life.