photographist

“At the interface of material mechanics and metallurgy, my challenges are related to the construction of aircraft, cars, nuclear power stations, musical instruments, etc. My work consists in understanding, analysing and modelling what happens when a piece of metal undergoes a transformation – whether this be in fabricating a saxophone part or a door, or subjecting it to heat treatment. During these operations, the material alters enormously and this will determine its properties for its use. Metals evolve constantly. We modify the composition of alloys or we develop them from recycled materials whose composition and behaviour is harder to control. We do not work enough on new processes related to recycling metals. We export a lot of material to be recycled, for example to India, which then comes back to France to be transformed.

As a researcher, to be able to explore the subjects we are interested in, we need to seek funding, write projects and develop subjects for collaboration with industrial partners. When you become an expert in a field, you may be contacted to take part in think tanks on future research. It is important to have experts in metallurgy in the places where the metals will be used in order to understand the impact of the transformation processes. We often share our preoccupations on complicated issues with the young researchers whose work we supervise. Teaching also allows us to further develop our thinking. Research is very useful to society and it is very important to have young people to take up the torch. I also like explaining science to secondary school and college students. I try to open up our laboratory to the outside world as much as possible.”

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