My work has been focused on extragalactic systems, although I remember an infamous time when I dared to study Mars and Neptune. Fortunately for me, this was at the prehistorical time when the eye of the TIGER (the first lensed-integral-field spectrograph) was still under the influence of mother Evolution. The poor beast became quickly extinct to be replaced by the successful TIGER 1.0 and its descendants (OASIS-CFHT, OASIS-WHT, SAURON), and I could thus switch to much larger (but still observable) scales, co-leading the development and advent of the Atlas3D project. I had the privilege to be involved in the development and exploitation of (and actually name) admittedly one of the best integral-field spectrographs in operation, MUSE at the VLT, led by Roland Bacon and his team.
Life being (partly) made of opportunities and luck, I have had the chance to witness the development of integral-field spectrography (in the optical/near-infrared domains) since its very beginning in the late 80's (another century), to contribute to its exploitation, analysis tools and methods,to the development and use of new modelling techniques. I had the immense privilege to meet and sometimes collaborate with many exceptional individuals, and be part of amazing science teams including SINFONI, SAURON, Atlas3D, Horizon, NGVS, MUSE (GTO), MaNGA and more recently PHANGS.
Every day, I feel lucky to be a scientist, and an astronomer. Conducting scientific research is a complex and tough endeavour, but one with an emblematic privilege: the chance to work hard for your passion.