Hi! I’m Nicolas, and I am a CNRS tenured researcher at the Center for research in Astrophysics of Lyon (CRAL), Lyon (France).

In brief, I am an expert in 3D spectral-imaging, with VLT/SINFONI and VLT/MUSE, and my research aims at better understanding the growth of galaxies, their dark-matter content and the processes of gas replenishment and outflows (often known as the baryon cycle) in relation to the morphological properties of galaxies.

One way to tackle the baryon cycle is to use background quasars passing near star-forming galaxies. These quasars shed light on absorption lines from intervening clouds which in turn provides critical information on both the accreting of gas (inflow of fresh fuel) (Gas Fueling) and on the galactic wind (outflows of gas ejected) phenomenon (Winds properties).

Aside from my work on 3D spectroscopy, I am known for having developped the bathtub/regulator model.

You can find more about the projects I am working on in the research section.

Biography

I grew up in Wallonia, Belgium, and after a B.Sc at UCL, I moved to Amherst, MA, where I completed a PhD position in Astronomy at UMASS, supervised by Dr. James Lowenthal on "The clustering of galaxies around Damped Lyman-alpha systems".
During my PhD, I was awarded with a Marie-Curie Studentship and spent 6 months at Institute of Astronomy. I successfully defended my PhD thesis in August 2003 and, from September 2003, I started a postdoc at ESO/MPA and in January 2005, I moved to MPE in the infrared group working with Prof. R. Genzel, where I worked on the SINS survey of high-redshift galaxies with SINFONI/VLT. In 2009, I obtained a Marie-Curie postdoctoral fellowship and moved to UC Santa Barbara (UCSB) to work with Prof. Crystal Martin on galactic outflows and the circumgalactic medium using Keck/LRIS spectroscopic data. In 2011, I obtained a position of "Chargé de Recherche" at CNRS at IRAP, Toulouse (France). In 2018, I moved to Lyon to join the Center for research in Astrophysics of Lyon (CRAL). I am now a "Directeur de Recherche" at CNRS.

Click below to give a look at my CV, publications, some pictures, and to learn how to contact me.