I'm researcher in Reunion Island, French Overseas Department. For the past 30 years, my main research subject has been the ecology of fish associated with coral reefs in the SW Indian Ocean and West Pacific. I have published approximately 100 articles in peer-reviewed publications and books.
I spent my childhood in Reunion (SW Indian Ocean). I read Biology at the Université d’Aix-Marseille in France before obtaining a grant to do a Master in Marine Biology in the USA (University of California Santa Barbara). After spending four years in the US, I returned to Reunion in order to work for my PhD, which I obtained in 1994, on the relations between benthic and fish communities on the island’s coral reefs. I was then a Senior Lecturer at Reunion Island University between 1996 and 2003. From 2003 to 2007 I carried out research for the French National Research Institute for Development (IRD) in New Caledonia (SO Pacific). In 2005 I obtained my accreditation to supervise research (HDR), having presented my work on the impact of coral reef perturbations on reef fishes in the SW Indian Ocean. In 2008 I resumed my research post at the IRD La Reunion, of which I have been director since 2013. I am highly involved in a number of organizations and projects related to conservation of coral reefs in Reunion and Mayotte, but also in others foreign countries of WIO region (Madagascar, Comoros, Mauritius, Seychelles, …). I’m also involved in WIOMSA (Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association) for long years, and particularly as a member board of trustees between 2009 and 2017 (Vice President between 2014-2017), and since 2018 member of the scientific board of MASMA (Marine Science for Management). I also remain active in supervising students in their research, at Master’s and PhD levels and am fully involved in the community in increasing awareness of environmental issues relating to coral reefs.