About me

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I am currently a postdoctoral researcher (‘chargé de recherches’) from the FNRS (Université de Namur, Belgium). I am in a visiting position at the CESCO lab (Centre d’écologie et des sciences de la conservation), Muséum national d’histoire naturelle (Paris, France). I got a PhD in Biology (Université Grenoble Alpes, France, 2015) and a PhD in Philosophy (Université Grenoble Alpes/Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada, 2018). I am a pluridisciplinary researcher in sociology and philosophy of science. Despite the diversity of my research interests, the different lines of investigation I pursue converge on the  »politics of science » as an epistemological object: I interrogate, through a philosophical and historical perspective, issues such as that of the modalities of science funding and science policy decisions, the participation of citizens to the production of scientific knowledge and expertise and its epistemological, ethical and social consequences, and the consolidation of trust in science through a well-conceived notion of  « public understanding of science ».

Education and position

  • 2020-2023: Postdoctoral researcher FNRS, Université de Namur/Muséum national d’histoire naturelle
  • 2019-2020 : Postdoctoral researcher at the Università Ca’Foscari (Venezia), with Eleonora Montuschi
  • 2018- 2019 : Postdoctoral  researcher at the IRPHIL (Université Lyon 3)
  • December 2018 : PhD in Philosophy (Université Grenoble Alpes/Université du Québec à Montréal), with Stéphanie Ruphy (IRPHIL, Lyon) and Vincent Guillin (CIRST, Montréal)
  • October 2015 : PhD in Cellular Biology (Université Grenoble Alpes) with Angélique Stéphanou (TIMC-IMAG, Grenoble)
  • June 2015 : Master degree in Philosophie (Université Grenoble Alpes)
  • June 2012 : Master degree in Biologie (Université Grenoble Alpes)
  • 2008-2011 :  »Élève normalien » (ENS de Lyon)

Research interests

I am a philosopher of science who explores the political, institutional, material, social and economical conditions of scientific knowledge production in our contemporaneous societies. I show how philosophy of science can and should grasp these themes usually studied by sociology, economics and management sciences. I develop both a fundamental reflection in philosophy of science (inspired by pragmatist tradition and the ‘practice turn’ in history and philosophy of science), and contributions to practical questions: how should we fund public science? Who should formulate the big orientations of science policy? What are the conditions of a good participation of lay citizens to the research processes? How could we build a ‘public understanding of science’ which would foster the formation of sound, rational and critical public opinions about science-related issues? What are the determinants and drivers of public trust in science ?

Past and present research projects

ANR Project  »Democrasci » (2015-2018).

Within this ANR-funded project, I interrogated the conditions of possibilities of a (more) democratic governance of science. I developed a conception of the dynamics of scientific development which takes into account the complex links between cognitive and practical interests and the unpredictable nature of the research process to propose some epistemological conditions for an efficient funding scheme of public research. I am currently prolonging this line of research by working on the formulation of concrete alternative models of governance for public science. https://www.democrasci.com/

Idex-UDL Project  »Partiscip » (2018-2019).

I explored, within the IRPHIL Lab in Lyon, the contemporaneous issue of  »citizen science » from an epistemological perspective. My research has interrogated the consequences of the participation of lay citizens to the research process on the complex notion of  »scientific objectivity ». How can we define an objective research (traditionnally linked to the closure of scientific ommunities) in a context of opening of research activities ? How the diversity of standpoint, interests, perpsectives, expertise, forms of knowledge influences (positively or negatively) the production of scientific knowledge and expertise ?

Spin project-Università Ca’Foscari  »Trust in Science » (2019-2020)

I currently work, with Pr. Eleonora Montuschi, on the foundations of the idea of ​​trust in (and trustworthiness of) science from an interdisciplinary perspective. I take as a starting point the notion of  »public understanding of science »: what citizens should understand about science in order to form sound opinions about science-related issues? I draw on the analysis of current political controversies involving scientific expertise to redefine, in a normative perspective, the very notion of scientific understanding as applied to lay citizens. https://www.unive.it/pag/37999/

FNRS project (MNHN/Université de Namur): citizen science and public attitudes towards science

I am currently collaborating with the CESCO lab (notably with Romain Julliard), from the French Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN), to study as a  »field philosopher » the citizen science programs in ecology managed by the CESCO ( »VIGIE-Nature »). I currently study the way citizen participation to the research process influences public understanding and public trust in science.

I am also currently working with the Polish Institute of Urban and Regional Development (with Bogna Gawronska-Novàk and Piotr Lis) on the development of a citizen science project in economics. Our aim is to evaluate the impact of citizen participation in a urban policies research project on the trust they have on scientific results.

Finally, I also develop in parallel a line of research in philosophy of biology, partly in relation with the issue of science governance. By studying historical and current scientific dynamics of bio-medicine and molecular biology, I try to describe the interactions between cognitive and practical interests in the construction of knowledge. In this context, I develop a reflection on the political and epistemological role of pluralism (and pluralist discourses), by taking as a case study the current debates around the theories of cancer.