Senior Scientific Engineering Associate
Nicolas is a Senior Scientific Engineering Associate of the Applied Nuclear Physics (ANP) program. He is interested in algorithm development in the fields of radiation detection, contextual information (camera, LiDAR), and the fusion of both. In particular, Nicolas is looking into how latest developments in ML/AI techniques can be leveraged to improve current state-of-the-art algorithms. He primarily working on in-situ radiation background learning, source detection/identification, object detection/tracking, and source-object attribution algorithms. A significant part of his work is dedicated to the development of architectures necessary for the deployment of related real-time applications in the field. He also works on the development of software tools for the simulation of large scale detector deployments in urban environments. Main projects he’s involved in are related to the detection/identification/tracking of radioactive material in urban environments, by leveraging data from static/mobile radiation detectors and contextual sensors deployed in the environment.
Prior to joining the ANP program in 2016, Nicolas was a Postdoctoral Researcher in the neutrino group of the Nuclear Science Division at LBNL. He worked on the Majorana Demonstrator neutrinoless double beta decay experiment, for which he served as the deputy task leader of the detector group. He helped design and characterize the Majorana low-background low-noise front-end electronics, and led the production and QA of the back-end and front-end electronics.
Education
Ph.D., Particle and Nuclear Physics, The University of Geneva, Switzerland, 2011
M.Sc., Particle and Nuclear Physics, The University of Geneva, Switzerland, 2005
B.Sc., Physics, The University of Geneva, Switzerland, 2003