Research Career before September 1991

      Mons Belfrey Tower and Square St Germain

I read  Mathematics as an undergraduate, from 1976 til 1980. I was then awarded a fellowship by the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (Aspirant FNRS) in order to kickstart my research career.  I obtained my `Doctorat en Sciences' in February 1984 from the Universite de Mons-Hainaut , located 50 miles south-west of Brussels in the french speaking region of Belgium.  This is where I was born and grew up,  enjoying the atmosphere of a small-size medieval town.

Thanks to a second FNRS grant (Charge de Recherches FNRS), I continued to work at Mons University for another two years, but had the opportunity to visit  the `Centre Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire'  (CERN) , situated at the swiss-french border near Geneva, on several occasions.

In September 1986, I moved to  Paris, Ecole Normale Superieure  on a one-year CNRS research position.

These two years I spent at  CERN, as a fellow.

It was then time to face the New World and plunge in the anglo-saxon culture of Midwest America.  Chicago became home for two years,  and I spent my american life as an Enrico Fermi fellow at  the Enrico Fermi Institute.