Paul Hauseux was always interested in science, but only recently settled on the researcher path. Before that, his career ambitions stretched from working in sports or music to teaching science. Some years and a PhD later, the French national has come to Luxembourg for his computational engineering Postdoc in the team of ERC grantee Stéphane Bordas at the University of Luxembourg.
“I had the opportunity to do a PhD at University of Lille and this experience with research convinced me to continue in this direction”, Paul says about how he ended up becoming a researcher, adding:
“I like to continuously learn and I have a lot of scientific curiosity. Research gives me freedom and independence and it also enables me to travel, particularly to conferences. In most cases, researchers work in universities and a part of their work is teaching, an aspect I also appreciate.”
After completing his PhD in France, which was funded by the French national radioactive waste management agency (ANDRA), Paul was looking for a place to do a Postdoc. He stumbled across an open position in his field at the Institute of Computational Engineering at the University of Luxembourg, and in January 2016 he came to Luxembourg.
Modelling the effects of uncertainty
Paul works with Prof Stéphane Bordas in the Engineering Science research unit at the University and is a member of the Legato team, which aims to build intuitive and interactive platforms for computational mechanics problems. Paul specifically works on “stochastic finite element methods” – but what exactly is that?
Various fields such as mechanics, geophysics, dynamical systems, statistical physics and mathematical finance rely on modelling what effect uncertainty could have on the output of a system. When it is impossible to analytically solve a problem, numerical methods – such as the ‘finite element method’ are used to develop a model that approximates a solution.
Paul says: ”When parameters involved in the model have a certain degree of uncertainty, stochastic methods, e.g. the stochastic finite element method, are used to take into account this uncertainty. Uncertainties can be modelled by both random variables and random fields in my research.”
“Numerical models and simulations are now commonly used to assist clinicians. I work on the simulation of soft tissue undergoing large deformations and address the problem of quantifying the effect of uncertainties on certain quantities of interest to the user e.g. displacement in a region. The picture shows the numerical results of the displacement of the brain and a target in the brain during brain shift (during a surgery). Monte Carlo methods are employed to propagate uncertainty and so provide statistical results. These methods lead to a collection of independent realisations of the forward model to solve and the picture shows the results for a given set of parameters.”
So what exactly does life look as a computational engineering researcher? It comes to no surprise that daily activities involve spending a lot of time on the machine you are working to improve:
“I spend practically all my day working on a computer. I split my time between implementing new numerical methods and reading scientific papers. Discussions with my colleagues and my advisor are also necessary to make progress and guide my research in the right direction. It is important to be aware of new advances in my field.
“When I obtain interesting results then it is time to write a paper and to attend conferences and/or seminars to show and share my work with other researchers. It also gives me the opportunity to learn, to meet new people and start collaborations. The researcher who is 100% alone and locked in his office is almost non-existent!”
In terms of career goals, Paul would like to have his own research programme and improve the scientific knowledge in his domain. “I would also be glad if my methods can be used by the industry, because there is still a big gap between scientific publications and what it is really made in the industrial sector. On top of that, writing a book before the end of my career is also an objective”, Paul says.
Luxembourg research has “significant potential”
“I originally thought that I would stay for a short experience, but I quickly realised working conditions here are excellent”, Paul says, adding that he was able to extend his initial contact, also pointing out that Luxembourg has some significant potential to become a research destination:
“The creation of the Centre of Excellence in Scientific Computing will enable connections between the different communities. In Luxembourg and with the new campus in Belval, a large diversity of disciplines is present in the same location. All disciplines have everything to gain, to share and bring together important resources concerning computational sciences, because they all use common bases.
“This centre will also help to build partnerships with companies. Finally, most people who come to Luxembourg want to stay because Luxembourg is also a pleasant place to live.”
Spotlight on Young Researchers is an FNR initiative to highlight early career researchers across the world who have a connection to Luxembourg. This article is the 13th in a series of around 25 articles, which will be published on a weekly basis. You can see more articles below as and when they are published.
Spotlight on Young Researchers: Taking language barriers out of the equation
Luxembourg nationals Max Greisen and Véronique Cornu have many things in common: They are both educated in the field of psychology, they are both PhD researchers at the University of Luxembourg – and they both work with language-free approaches to early mathematical development of multilingual children. Max develops and implements animations that help assess early numerical competencies, while Véronique develops training methods to help overcome language barriers in early math education.
Spotlight on Young Researchers: Understanding drug resistance in skin cancer
Melanoma is a rare type of skin cancer, but it is the deadliest type – and incidence is on the rise. Metastatic melanoma has seen a rapid emergence in drug resistance: After a few months, treatment stops working and tumours begin to grow again. Molecular biologists are working to understand why this happens.
After completing her master’s degree, Luxembourg national Dominique Santana decided to spend time in her mother’s birth country Brazil. While there, she became intrigued by Brazil’s communities of Luxembourgish nationals and wanted to investigate further. Now in the first year of her AFR PhD at the C²DH at the University of Luxembourg, Dominique is examining the paths of Luxembourgers who emigrated to Brazil from 1920 – 1965, which has already rekindled old friendships.
When Thomas Elliot (Tom) cycled from Indonesia to London, he witnessed many people living in hardship. Motivated to research how consumption affects social and environmental justice in a bid to help reduce the hardship witnessed, the New Zealand national applied for an open PhD position at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), where he now works on a project that fuses urban metabolism and ecosystem services.
Antoun Al Absi has been fascinated by microscopes ever since his parents gave him one as a child. Unsurprisingly, the Syrian-French national cherishes the long hours spent on the microscope as part of his AFR PhD at the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH), where he investigates how tumour cells escape the ‘immune surveillance system’, enabling them to spread to other parts of the body.
Ever since he was a child, Jo Hoeser wanted to understand the function of complex systems. He found himself taking apart and trying to fix broken electronic devices. Then fascination for chemistry came into the mix. Fast forward some years and the Luxembourg national completed his AFR PhD in biochemistry at the Albert-Ludwigs University Freiburg – and wants to return to the Grand Duchy to continue his career in research.
Climate change affects vegetation and water resources. In order to understand these changes, scientists use models – an abstract, mathematical representation of an ecological system. The challenge: Making accurate predictions under change, without ‘tuning’ models with data. We speak to Dutch national Remko Nijzink, Postdoc in the group of FNR ATTRACT Fellow Dr. Stan Schymanski at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), about his modelling work and the importance of an open science approach.
Spotlight on Young Researchers: The human gut microbiome and the clues it holds
Research is steadily painting a picture revealing the significance the human gut microbiome plays in health and disease. From gastrointestinal tract disorders to the beginnings and treatment of Parkinson’s disease and beyond, the gut microbiome is a treasure trove of clues for researchers. We speak to three women in science – a biomedical scientist, a microbiologist and a bioscience engineer – about organs-on-chips and restoring an imbalanced microbiome.
Floods across the world have resulted in tremendous economic damage and loss of lives: better tools to predict flood rise and recession are needed. The biggest question facing researchers like Mohammad Zare is how to accurately simulate and predict this complex phenomenon. As part of an Industrial Fellowship between the University of Luxembourg and company RSS-Hydro, the Postdoc Works on improving the simulation and prediction of flash floods, with the goal to develop a decision-making model for flood protection in Luxembourg.
Pit Ullmann’s interest in natural sciences was piqued in high school. The Luxembourg national went on to study molecular biology at the University of Innsbruck and then found himself desiring a job that would be both interdisciplinary and diversified – fast forward and Pit is now completing his AFR PhD at the University of Luxembourg, where his research group studies why and how colon cancer develops and spreads.
Luxembourg is one of many countries experiencing the arrival of asylum seekers and refugees that have been displaced for reasons such as conflicts or instability in their own country. Managing a research team for the first time, CORE Junior PI Lucas Oesch leads the project ‘REFUGOV’ at the University of Luxembourg, which looks at the accommodation of asylum seekers and refugees in cities and camps.
Hussein Rappel uses a mathematical learning approach to try to predict and simulate physical phenomena. The Iranian national came to Luxembourg in 2014 to join the team of Prof Stephane Bordas at the University of Luxembourg, where he is now in the 3rd year of his PhD in Computational Science – and sees great potential in Luxembourg as a research destination.
Spotlight on Young Researchers: Membranes for clean water
As the global population sharply increases, so does the demand for clean water. At the same time, freshwater is gradually being depleted. Combine these two factors, and we have the potential for widespread water shortages – it is estimated that half of European basins will be experiencing water stress by 2030, and that 6 billion people will suffer from clean water scarcity by 2050. Researchers are working on cost-effective practices to address this impending crisis.
Ramona Pelich uses data from satellites in space to improve maritime surveillance and flood hazard monitoring. Splitting her time between the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) and the company LuxSpace as part of her AFR-PPP Postdoc, the Romanian national’s work has already found direct application when flood maps she co-developed were used in the aftermath of destructive 2017 hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
Spotlight on Young Researchers: Increasing the diversity of plant species used for vegetable oil
Vegetable oil – mainly palm oil – is heavily relied upon in the production of food, cosmetics, and biofuel. The increase in droughts also affects the standard cultivation of palm oil – alternatives are needed. Agricultural scientists are investigating the potential of a new alternative drought-resistant source for the most widely-used kind of vegetable oil.
Spotlight on Young Researchers – revisited 5 years later: From drones to space robotics
When we wrote about Miguel Olivares Mendez in the 2017 edition of Spotlight on Young Researchers, the researcher was working on an FNR JUMP project, focussing on developing algorithms for autonomous drones. The robotics scientist has continued to build his research career in Luxembourg – 5 years later, Miguel is a Professor leading a research group with a focus on space robotics.
To many, the Middle Ages are synonymous with the term the ‘Dark Ages’ – a time of decline. The term was coined hundreds of years ago by the era referring to itself as the ‘Renaissance’ – a rebirth of norms and standards. There is in fact much more to the complexity of the Middle Ages and historians are working on overcoming these antiquated ideas. For this research, Dr Christa Birkel won a 2021 FNR Award in the category ‘Outstanding PhD Thesis’.
During her Master’s studies, Amy Parrish found her passion for research with a clinical aspect. Having come from London to Luxembourg to pursue her AFR PhD at the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH) in the research group of Mahesh Desai, the American national studies the bacteria that inhabit our gut, to shed light on the development of diseases such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).
Spotlight on Young Researchers: Maria Pires Pacheco
Maria Pires Pacheco is a problem solver with a fondness for coding, who was always drawn to the scientist in a group of heroes, rather than the classic hero. During her AFR PhD, the Luxembourg national worked on building tools that help simulate the metabolism of a cell, tools she applied to cancer research during her postdoc.
Spotlight on Young Researchers: Steve Dias Da Cruz
While machine learning and deep learning have come a long way, they are not yet at a stage where autonomous vehicles can handle unexpected situations. As part of a public research-industry collaboration, early career researcher Steve Dias Da Cruz investigates possibilities to reduce the amount of data needed to train reliable deep learning models for safety critical applications in the automotive industry.
In high school, Anna Schleimer thought everything there was to know in science was already known. When she discovered how many unanswered questions there still are, curiosity drove her to become a researcher. The Luxembourg national is now in the 1st year of her AFR PhD, in what is not your most common topic: As a marine biologist, Anna studies fin whales as part of her joint PhD at University of Groningen and University of St Andrews.
Spotlight on Young Researchers: A fully automatic flood mapping algorithm
Flooding presents a major hazard in both rural and urban areas. Luxembourg was also affected by the significant floods that devastated parts of Germany in July 2021. With the goal of predicting areas that will flood, scientists are working on various aspects of flood-mapping using satellite data.
Spotlight on Young Researchers: Glioblastoma and the challenge of getting cancer drugs to reach the brain
Glioblastoma is the most aggressive form of brain tumours in adults. The incidence is about 4 per 100.000 people and the average survival after diagnosis is about 14 months with current treatments. The tumour’s location represents a major challenge – few drugs make it past the blood brain barrier. Researchers are working on designing a novel kind of drug that could help do just that.
Nina Hentzen, an organic chemist working on the chemical synthesis of collagen, is fascinated by research at the interface of chemistry and biology. The Luxembourg national is in the second year of her AFR PhD at ETH Zürich – and has just been selected to attend the renowned 2017 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting.
Spotlight on Young Researchers: Christof Ferreira Torres
Can we truly trust current blockchain technology to securely automate important processes in the financial sector? Christof Ferreira Torres wants to answer this question. In the framework of his Industrial Fellowship PhD with the University of Luxembourg and the bank Spuerkeess (BCEE), the Portuguese national works on the security of smart contracts and the detection of fraudulent transactions – because gaps in security can quickly mean high costs for thousands of people.
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