Food systems being highly complex socio-environmental systems, the solutions to improve their environmental and health outcomes require employing innovative inter-disciplinary approaches to understand the interactions and dynamics within them.

In my research career, I have used multi-disciplinary approaches to study global food systems and environmental sustainability with a broad objective of identifying feasible solutions to improve the health and environmental outcomes of global food systems. I have acquired extensive experience in combining complex, trans-disciplinary datasets, and now possess a solid understanding of the underlying processes in both Earth system and economic models.

In addition, I have proven expertise in analysis and scenario runs for complex systems (e.g. complex network theory), network modelling, projections and optimization.

I have also obtained independent and collaborative research funding, which enabled me to build a team. I have gained experience in the estimation of other environmental pressures from agricultural production, such as the use of land, fertilisers, and the emissions of greenhouse gases.

I also worked on evaluating the impacts of food systems on biodiversity (via land use, fertiliser use and greenhouse gas emissions) and on nutritional health aspects. I used inter-disciplinary methods: biophysical models, trade modelling, resource efficiency and sustainability; and statistics applied to large spatially-explicit datasets. This expertise is demonstrated in publications in world-leading academic journals, and recognised by several prizes, awards, funding successes (including a UK NERC Independent Research Fellowship and an ERC Starting Grant), membership of the Editorial Board of a major interdisciplinary environmental science journal, and invitations to deliver keynote talks at international scientific conferences.

Here, I outline the research achievements I have attained during my Ph.D., postdoctoral research, and as PI (since 2016), along four main research avenues centered on the spatially-detailed assessment of global food systems’ effects on planetary health:
(i) Water for food: virtual water trade networks,
(ii) Sustainability of agricultural water use and trade,
(iii) Multi-dimensional assessment of food systems environmental sustainability, and
(iv) Food systems and planetary health.

Lieu
École normale supérieure – PSL
24 rue Lhomond – aile Erasme
salle Claude Froidevaux – E314

Pierre BARRE (ENS-PSL) – Correspondant
Stéphane DE CARA (INRAE / AgroParisTech) – Rapporteur
Patrick MEYFROIDT (UCLouvain) – Rapporteur
Inge DE GRAAF (Wageningen University) – Rapportrice
Rosemary GREEN (LHSTM, London) – Examinatrice
Raja CHAKIR (INRAE / AgroParisTech) – Examinatrice
Philippe CIAIS (LSCE IPSL / Université Paris Saclay) – Examinateur