photographist

“I dreamed of being the first woman astronaut, and I wrote a thesis at the space astronomy laboratory at the CNRS before joining a laboratory that undertakes research into applied mathematics and IT. Ever since I was very small, I have been fascinated by understanding shapes and their spatial dimensions. I wanted to go beyond appearances by using techniques on the border between signal processing and IT. At Inria, I am exploring computer vision. I modelled digital photographs before working on video. Using computing power that enables us to rotate algorithms in real time, I have examined the area of 4D – the three spatial dimensions, plus time – and this has enabled applications to provide transport safety by means of video surveillance. On a more microscopic scale, we have applied for a patent relating to the recognition of allergenic pollens..

You are not born a scientist, you become one! You become one in different ways, either because you are trying to understand things – as a child I dismantled a doll to understand the mechanism that made it blink – or because someone takes the time to answer your questions... My father entirely took the engine of our car apart simply to answer our question as to how the engine worked; he gave us details of all the pieces and laid them out on the ground... A scientist gets a bit annoyed when there is something he does not know, so he digs, he dares to try things and open up new horizons for himself. He knows that he does not have all the skills, so he goes to look for them. A research team is a fundamental tool, it is a collection of researchers with different technical skills, ages and cultures, who all have a shared objective and work together in the same direction. Science is truly a garden that is open to everyone.”

Monique Thonnat
Research Director and Centre Director, Inria Bordeaux – Sud-Ouest

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