François Massonnet

LAST NAME, first name	MASSONNET, François
Citizenship	Belgian
Date of birth	22nd of March, 1986
Marital status	Married, two children
Work address	Place Louis Pasteur 3, bte L4.03.08
Tel. (work)	+32 10 47 33 04
E-mail	francois(dot)massonnet(at)uclouvain(dot)be

Short bio

I obtained my PhD in Sciences in 2014 from the Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) under the supervision of Profs. Thierry Fichefet and Hugues Goosse. During my PhD, I developed various metrics to evaluate sea ice models used in the framework of climate reconstructions, predictions and projections. I participated as a contributing author to the fifth assessment report of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). I also implemented ensemble data assimilation methods in large-scale sea ice models for state and parameter estimation. Immediately after my PhD thesis, I joined the Climate Prediction Group of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center Earth Sciences Department (BSC-ES) and worked under the guidance of Dr Virginie Guemas and Prof Francisco Doblas-Reyes. There, I explored various aspects of seasonal-to-decadal polar and extra-polar prediction, including attribution of extreme events, improved initialization techniques, novel aspects of forecast verification and linkages of the Arctic system with lower latitudes. In particular, I implemented an ensemble coupled sea ice data assimilation method in the General Circulation Model EC-Earth for initialization of near-term predictions in both the Arctic and Antarctic regions. I have then been a F.R.S.-FNRS Postdoctoral Researcher at the UCLouvain. My work focused on the use and assessment of climate general circulation models for prediction at time scales from the month to the decade.

 

I am now a full-time permanent Research Associate with the F.R.S.-FNRS at UCLouvain, and explore, together with my group (8 PhD students and 3 post-doctoral researchers) various aspects of seasonal to decadal climate prediction in polar regions.

I am author or co-author of 90 publications from the peer-reviewed literature, have given more than 70 presentations in international conferences. I have been involved in several national and international research projects and programmes about climate prediction and predictability, including four FP7/H2020 EU projects. I have been awarded the EGU 2020 Arne Richter award for Outstanding Early Career Scientist and the Charles Lagrange award for Earth System Modelling from the Belgian Royal Academy of Sciences. I am frequently consulted by written and spoken media, both as a researcher to disseminate my works, but also as an expert on climate-change related issues. I have been awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant in 2023 to work on rapid Arctic sea ice loss events.

Employment

• 2018-now: F.R.S.-FNRS Research Associate at Université catholique de Louvain
• 2017-2018: F.R.S.-FNRS Post-Doctoral Researcher at Université Catholique de Louvain
• 2015-2016: Juan de la Cierva Formación post-doctoral research fellow at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC, Barcelona, Spain)
• 2014-2015:  F.R.S.-FNRS Post-Doctoral Researcher at Université Catholique de Louvain , visiting the Institut Català de Ciències del Clima (Barcelona, Spain)
  
• 2010 - 2014 :  F.R.S.-FNRS Research Fellow at Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium

• 2009 - 2010 : Teaching and research assistant at Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium.

• 2009: Master degree in Engineering, orientation Applied Mathematics at Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium (La Plus Grande Distinction). Master thesis: Trafic autoroutier: analyse, gestion et stabilité au niveau microscopique. (supervisors: G. Bastin and G. Campion). Full text (french) or Short version (french).

• 2007-2008: Exchange at the Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, Canada)

• 2007: Bachelor degree in Engineering at Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium (Grande Distinction).

• 2004: High school degree at Collège Saint-Michel, Bruxelles.

Scientific involvements

• Leader of the SIPN South project and member of the US Sea Ice Prediction Network.
• Co-chair of the Sea Ice MIP (SIMIP) project for CMIP7 and member of the leadership Sea Ice MIP panel of CMIP6 
• Work package leader in the APPLICATE H2020 EU project, scientific involvement in the PRIMAVERA H2020 project
• PI for UCL in the C3S_511 tender (Copernicus Climate Change services) on assessment of sea ice observations
• Co-convener of the SCAR Open Science Conference session "Antarctica in a Global System" (August 2016)
• Co-convener of the IUGG General Assembly session "Evaluation of the Cryosphere in CMIP5 models" (June 2015)
• CliC fellow for the Year of Polar Prediction
• Belgian National representative of the SOOS and SORP projects.
• Member of the Southern Ocean Regional Panel (SORP) of the WCRP/CLIVAR/CLiC project.
• Member of the Sea Ice Prediction Network (SIPN) Sea ice Outlook team. (See contributions here and here)
• Contributing author to the IPCC AR5 (Chapter 12, Long-term projections)

Awards and recognition

• ERC Starting grant from the EU Commission (1.5 M€)
• EGU Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists (2020)
• Admitted to Step 2 of ERC Starting Grant (not selected for final funding) (2019)
• Mandat d'Impulsion Scientifique (290 k€) (2020)
• UCLouvain Fonds Spéciaux de Recherche (37 k€, declined) (2019)
• 247 k€ through the EU Copernicus service C3S_511 (2017)
• Severo Ochoa travel Grant (1200 €) for scientific stay at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-ES) in November 2017
• 2.2 million CPU hours on MareNostrum3 (BSC-ES Supercomputer) for project on sea ice data assimilation (2016)
• ResClim Summer School Best Poster Award (2011)
• WCRP Open Science Conference Best Poster Award (2011)
• APECS third prize ($50) for presentation on data assimilation in the “New Perspectives in the Polar Sciences” conference (March 2015)
• F.R.S.-FNRS Research Fellowship (4 years of full salary)
• F.R.S.-FNRS Post-Doctoral Fellowship (3 years of full salary)
• Juan de la Cierva Formación Postdoctoral Fellowship (2 years of full salary, declined 1)
• Travel and housing grant for the 2011 International ResClim 15-day summer school in Longyearbyen, Norway
• Travel grant for the 2014 International IGS Symposium in Hobart, Australia
• Travel grant for the 2014 Arctic sea ice Prediction workshop in Boulder, USA
• Travel grant for the 2015 workshop on High Latitude Dynamics in Rosendal, Norway.

Supervision experience

I have supervised or co-supervised 15 MSc theses, 11 PhD students and 8 post-doctoral researchers.

Teaching experience 

• 2025-now: LPHYS2162: Introduction to the Climate System and its Modeling
• 2025-now LPHYS1365: Météorologie
• 2019–now — LPHYS2163: Atmosphere and Ocean: Physics and Dynamics
• 2019–now — LPHYS2268: Forecast, prediction and projection in climate science
• 2019–2020 — LGCIV2056: Marine Hydrodynamics
• 2017–2018 — Applied exercises in Physics (LPHY1212)
• 2009–2014 — Teaching Assistant in Physics, 1st year classes
• LPHY2153: Introduction to Climate Modelling
• LPHY1212: Exercices intégrés et data processing
• PHY1113: Physique générale
• FSAB 1202: Electromagnétisme et mécanique (partie mécanique)
• FSAB 1101: Mathématiques 1

Languages

Mother tongue: French; fluent in English (EU level: C1) and Dutch (B2); notions in Spanish.

Hobbies

• Tennis, soccer, cycling, running (4 marathons)
• Chess, piano, photography, cooking.