My PhD defense is on December 4th at 14h (Paris Time, UTC+2)- click here for more information

About Me

PhD student in the Astrochemistry & Origin team of the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale (Université Paris-Saclay & CNRS), my research focuses on returned samples from the asteroid Ryugu, a near-earth asteroid sampled by the Hayabusa2 mission from the Japanese space agency JAXA.

Over the past three years, I have mainly studied one Ryugu sample, A0159. It’s only about 3 millimeters across, but this tiny grain is fascinating — it shows a wide variety of interesting features! For example, my colleagues and I detected a millimeter-sized carbonate vein (click here to see the vein in the grain), the first such structure ever observed in either Ryugu samples or in the closest meteorites, the CI chondrites.

I love experimental work and have strong skills in acquiring and analyzing X-ray computed tomography (XCT) data. So far, I have worked exclusively with synchrotron radiation-based XCT, but I hope to learn how to use laboratory-based instruments in the future. I also have experience in spectroscopy and microscopy.

With my background in geology, I like to describe myself as an astrogeologist — someone who studies the mineralogy and structure of extraterrestrial materials to better understand their geological history.