This page is to tell you a little bit more about me, who I am and what are my other interests in life. It is also a chance to share some memories with friends and family. While you are reading, I propose you a few of my favorite classic music pieces:
Pavane pour une infante defunte - Maurice Ravel
Nocturne #1 - Frederic Chopin
Gnosienne #1 - Erik Satie
My family
This is by far what is the dearest to me and what I am the most proud of. Let me present you who they are.
My family in Italy
In the center of this picture is my beautiful wife Genevieve. She is a fabulous artist. In her younger times, she was a profesional ballet dancer. She dances in many productions of Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, including Nutcrakers, Giselle and others. She also studied fine arts, doing expressive painting of marking events of the time. Over the last 9 years, she has been a stay-at-home mom. I am extremely proud of the fabulous work she is doing with our children. This is an important aspect of the philosophy of life we are sharing. She is becoming a professional photographer and you will be able to follow her on this page.
To the right, is the eldest of our children. Is name is Raphael and is born in 2006. He never stopped impressing us by the maturity of his thoughts and actions. He is very responsible and always eager to help people. The empathy he feels for people is surprising for a kid of this age.
FInally, to the left is our daughter Marine, born in 2008. Her sense of happiness and communicative expressivity make me say that she has the gift of transfering happiness to people. This little girl has a surprising capacity of thinking out of the box, and care a lot for the one she loves.
Raphael and Marine are best friends. If this can stay forever, I will be able to say "mission accomplished!"
Below, you will see more photo in my little photo album.
Philosophy
In addition of physics, I am passionate about philosophy. I did the equivalent of an american major in philosophy when I was a student in Montreal. I am mostly interested in epistemology, philosophy of sciences, and philosophy of language, within the analytic or anglo-saxon tradition. I grew up a lot reading Hume, Wittgenstein, Hempel, Putnam or Searle, to name just a few. I however also think there is a great value in reading the classics such as Plato, Aristotle or Descartes. Philosophy is all about subtleties, critical mind and clarification of meanings.
I don't like labels, but if you absolutely need to tag me with one of them, I guess we could say that my epistemological position is anti-realist, probably close to the empirical cosntructivism of van Fraasen. I don't want to use philosophy only as a mean of education, but I also want to contribute to it. I therefore recently join a group of philosophers thinking about epistemological aspects of the LHC. I gave a presentation entitles Autopsy of a measurement at the LHC in a workshop and a paper should soon come out of this.
Arts
Althought I don't have any artistic skills, I really enjoy arts, going to museum with my wife Genevieve and initiating our children to it. Like everybody, I like impressionist paintings, but I also like german expressionism, post-impressionism, surrealism, cubism and action painting. In the more classic periods, I enjoy looking at portraits from the northern school (Dutch painting), as well as genre art. Also think that medieval painting and especially stainglasses features a naivety that create strong emotions. It is very difficult to establish of list of my top 5 paintings (I can probably fit 25 in this top 5), but if I try the exercise for fun, it might give something like:
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
"The Hunters in the snow" (1565)
Marc Chagall
"Over Vitebsk" (1913)
Pablo Picasso
"Child with a dove" (1901)
Vincent van Gogh
"Starry night" (1889)
Amedeo Modigliani
"Sleeping nude with arms open" (1917)
I am also a cinephile. I am working on my top 10 list of favorite movies. This is also very difficult to do. I will probably revise this a few times (and possibly have done so already), but it can look like (not in particular order):
- 2001 Space odyssey (Stanley Kubric, 1968)
- Matroni et moi (Jean-Philippe Duval, 1999)
- Tous les matins du monde (Alain Corneau, 1991)
- Twelve monkeys (Terry Gilliam, 1995)
- Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen, 2011)
- Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010)
- Amadeus (Milos Forman, 1984)
- Elephant man (David Lynch, 1980)
- Transpotting (Danny Boyle, 1996)
- The Lord of the Ring (Peter Jackson, 2001-03)
Literature
Reading is one of my favorite hobbies. I am reading at least a little bit almost everyday. Most of the time, I am reading physics papers or books (not necessarily directly related to my work) or philosophical essays or papers, but I also like to read novels. I should do it more often, because it is very relaxing (I am not relaxing when I am reading philo or sciences as I take notes and write summaries). Again, to help you knowing me a little more, I am trying to list, below, my top 10 novels. There are many criteria for such lists, as it is the case for paintings and movies. I tried to select novels that played a role in what I am. They might not be the one I would bring on a desert island, but they are constitutive of my personality.
- The Name of the rose (Unberto Eco, 1980)
- Cosmicomics (Italo Calvino, 1965)
- L'Etranger (Albert Camus, 1942)
- L'ecume des jours (Boris Vian, 1947)
- The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925)
- Vol de nuit (Antoine de St-Exupery, 1931)
- Le Roi se meurt (Eugene Ionesco, 1965)
- Jacques le Fataliste et son maitre (Denis Diderot, 1765-84)
- Cyrano de Bergerac (Edmond Rostand, 1897)
- Le Proces (Franz Kafka, 1925)
Sports
I also have to admit that I am a big fan of ice hockey and of the Montreal Canadiens!
Photos
Here are some photos I would like to share with you. I will update this from time to time. They are usually taken by very very talented and beloved Genevieve.
Raphael and Marine looking at the Mediterranean sea
in the Cinque Terre (Italy, August 2014)
Genevieve eating fabulous gelato in the Cinque Terre (Italy, 2014)
The Seven Sisters (near Brighton UK, June 2009)
The mystic quasi-island of Lindisfarne (UK, July 2014)
Oxford Racliffe Camera (Oxford, July 2012)