Born: 23 July 1948 in Paris

1971 - 1977 musician, co-founder of a jazz band

1974 - 1979 journalist at the bi-monthly paper "Techniques--Petromonde"; responsible of a regular editorial "Le monde de l'energie"

1975 Licenses of Ethnology and Physics, University of Paris VII

1976 Master of Physics, University of Paris VII

1977 DEA of Astrophysics, University of Paris VII

1979 3e Cycle Doctorate, University of Paris VII:

"The interstellar medium toward gamma Cassiopeia"

1979 - 1980 "Research Fellow" European Southern Observatory (ESO), Geneva ( Switzerland )

1980 -1982 "Research Fellow" ESO, Garching ( Germany )

1982 Entrance at CNRS

1984 Arrival at IAP

1986 State Doctorate, University of Paris VII:

"Contributions to the study of the diffuse interstellar medium".

1986 - 1991 Editor in chief of "L'Astronomie", journal of the " Société Astronomique de France"

1991 - 1995 Elected member and scientific secretary of "Section 14" of the National Committee for the Scientific Research.

1993 Directeur de Recherche at CNRS.

1995 - 2000 Elected member of "Section 14" and "Section 42".

1997 - 2001 President of the "Societe Astronomique de France".

1998 - 1999 Direction of Research at the French Ministry of National Education and Research for Earth and Universe Sciences.

169 referred articles.

23 invited papers in conferences.

5 chapters in books.

144 contributed papers in conferences and popularization papers.

Direction with Ph. de La Cotardiere of the book "Le Grand Livre du Ciel", 1999,

Bordas; new edition in 2001 and 2005 ("Le Larousse du Ciel").

Prize "des Dames" from the "Societe Astronomique de France" (1989).

Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Merite (2000)

Main fields of research (past and present):

Interstellar and intergalactic media; light elements abundances, in particular

deuterium for its cosmological importance.

Circumstellar disks, in particular the beta Pictoris one.

Extrasolar planets and their atmospheres.

Dark matter in the halo of our Galaxy.

Ground-based and space-based absorption spectroscopy; in particular, exploitation

of the FUSE satellite (Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer).