My research activities concern atomic physics of high energy density plasmas. Research Director at CEA since 2021. My fields of investigation are mainly:

• Modeling of dense plasmas (electronic structure, equation of state) in the framework of “mean field” approaches.
• Shock instabilities (Dyakov-Kontorovich).
• Electrical and thermal conductivity of matter under extreme conditions.
• Radiative properties of hot plasmas (opacities, emissivities …) at local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) or out of LTE. The radiative opacity (photo-absorption cross-section) is important in particular for the understanding of the stellar structure and evolution (Sun, Beta Cepheid stars, …). It plays a crucial role in the radiation transfer from the center of the star, where thermonuclear reactions take place, to its surface. I am also interested in radiation scattering and multi-photon absorption.
• General properties of complex atomic spectra: distribution of energy levels and absorption and emission lines, random-matrix theory, Lie groups and invariants, angular-momentum theory (Racah algebra, 3nj coefficients, sum rules, etc). These studies are the keystone of atomic physics and spectroscopy codes. I also work closely with experimentalists at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL, USA) and at the Laboratory for the Use of Intense Lasers (LULI, Ecole Polytechnique). I maintain collaborations with researchers from different laboratories, in France or abroad, for example from the Aimé Cotton Laboratory (Orsay), LULI, Aix-Marseille, Toulouse and Liège Universities, CEA Saclay (DRF/IRAMIS and DRF/IRFU) and the US national labs of Los Alamos, Livermore and La Sandia (SNL).