photographist

“Science is creative and I love creating things. When I was younger, I wanted to become either an architect or a scientist. I ended up choosing science, and decided to work on food quality. I am an agricultural engineer by training and have a Master’s degree (DEA) in physics and chemistry. I specialized in near-infrared spectrometry, a method used to measure the composition of products, environments and objects by projecting light – sunlight or a lamp – on an object, then analysing the light transmitted/reflected. In this way, we learn the composition of what we see. We started working with food products, measuring the sugar in fruit to evaluate taste. Then we applied the method to other fields, such as soil quality.

Near-infrared spectrometry is currently used to sort recycled waste. The number two leading company using this technology of sorting waste is based in France. This technology is also used in various other fields such as the industrial sector, archaeology and ecology. This totally harmless methodology is even used to study oxygen levels in babies’ brains!
Every time a new potential application excites our interest, new research issues emerge. I have recently become interested in another scientific topic: environmental assessment. We want to reduce our environmental footprint. To do this, we must become familiar with its impacts. We are also working on life-cycle analysis, a very robust but complex method useful for choosing the products we consume.”

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