I graduated in mathematics and physics from the Universities of Toulouse and Paris-Sud, Orsay, France. In 1989, I received his PhD in theoretical physics, devoted to the strong Langmuir turbulence in laser-driven fusion plasmas. In 1990, I were employed as research scientist at CEA. Working first on parametric instabilities in plasmas, I then turned to nonlinear optics in 1995. In 1997, I passed my Habilitation thesis on wave collapse in physics. I next devoted my research to the filamentation of ultrashort laser pulses in transparent media and related properties such as supercontinuum generation and pulse self-compression, which I pioneered in the early 2000. More recently, I focused my scientific activities on terahertz pulse generation induced by femtosecond pulses in gases. I am exploring new ways to produce energetic THz waves by using ultra-intense laser pulses. Also involved in experimental efforts on innovative detection methods, I coordinate the French ANR project ALTESSE, which is devoted to ultrabroadband terahertz spectroscopy of molecules. My research activities have been expressed in more than 150 articles, 6 book chapters and 180 conferences (110 invited). Since April 2021, I have been the President of the European Physical Society.