Biography

  • After an engineering diploma of the ENSAM (Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Métiers – Paris) in 1977, I got a master of business administration at the IAE of Aix-en-Provence (1978) and a master in economics sciences at the Aix-Marseille university in (1979). In 1981, I obtained my PhD at the Aix-Marseille University, while my research was done at the CNRS GRASCE laboratory under the direction of Prof. Jean-Louis Le Moigne and Bertrand Munier.
  • After some years as project manager in the computer department of the Comex Company (1981-1983), I was assistant professor at the Laval university, Quebec, Canada, in the Information System department of the Economic Sciences Faculty (1983-1987), and scientific director  of the formation department of the IIRIAM (Institut International de Robotique et d’Intelligence Artificielle de Marseille).
  • From 1987 to 1996, I was assistant professor at the Aix-Marseille university, in the MIAGE program of the Economic Sciences Faculty. In 1995, I obtained a HDR (Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches) diploma in Computer Sciences from Aix-Marseille university. From 1988 to 1995, I was Scientific Director of the Systémia Institute, institute of training in advances software techniques, and of research and development, where I had created a specialized master program, set up and managed several R&D projects, in particular a Brite-Euram european project.
  • Since 1996, I am Full Professor in Computer Sciences at the Aix-Marseille University, at the Ecole Polytechnique Universitaire de Marseille (EPUM-Polytech Marseille). From 2001 to 2004, I was also Associate Professeur at the Computer Science department of the Laval university, Quebec, Canada.
  • I am currently permanent researcher, in the Data Science pole of the LIS UMR CNRS 7020 (Research Laboratory in Computer Science and Systems), resulting from the fusion of the LSIS and LIF laboratories in January 2018. I actively participated to the creation in 2000 of the LSIS UMR CNRS 6168 (Laboratoire des Sciences de l’Information et des Systèmes) research laboratory, where I led since fifteen-year a research team.
  • My current research interests concern on the one hand information extraction (text mining) based on ontologies and machine learning, and on other hand the design of decision suport systems based on software agents (agent-based simulation), ontologies, and/or data warehouses.
  • During twenty years, I supervised around twenty PhD thesis (Many of them now have academic positions in France or abroad), I published more than a hundred of papers in journals and international conferences. Moreover, I am co-authored of two text books (4 editions) on Management Information System design, and editor of a proceeding of an international conference in Agent based Simulation. I am member of editorial board of several journals, and I have participated in program committees of many national and international conferences.
  • I was also involved as a member of several local and national committees (including CNU, the National Council of French Universities), as expert of the French national research agency (ANR), for HCERES, and others national and international organizations as CRSNG, MITAC for Canada. Finally I am regularly member of selection comittees for Professor or Assistant Professors, and in jurys of PhD Thesis or HDR (Research Habilitations).
  • Finally, I was invited by the Laval university, Quebec, Canada (summer 2000 and falls 2004), and by the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Centro de Informatica, and Federal University Rural of Pernambuco (UFRPE), Recife, Brazil  in summer 2007, spring 2008 and spring 2019.