Copyright © P. Albou, 1997. Last updated 10/31/2008.

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Pierre Albou

 

This page deals with myself and provides links to interesting web sites related to me.
Who am I ? | What do I do ? | What I like (and dislike) | How to contact me

Who am I ?

I was born in Paris (France) in 1965. My father, now retired, is a well known professor in the field of psychology and sociology (he worked at the René Descartes university in Paris, published many books and is still writing new ones). My mother cooks marvellously and passed on to me her liking for classical music.

I graduated in 1988 from the Ecole Supérieure d'Electricité (generally known as SupElec), a french Grande Ecole (something that does not exist elsewhere in the world, so if you are not french, don't try and guess its academic standard: it is higher than any university, at least in France). I hold an electrical engineering degree from SupElec.

Since I have been interested in technical and scientific research since childhood, I decided to prepare a PhD degree, which I received in 1991 (my thesis dealt with electrical gas discharges). I hold this degree from the Paris VI university (also know as Université Pierre et Marie Curie).

Here are links to SupElec's and Pierre et Marie Curie university's web sites:

What do I do ?

I have been working for Valeo (lighting systems division) since 1988. The company paid for my PhD degree. Half of all expenses were refunded to Valeo by the french government, so that the research I made for them (the company had chosen the subject of the thesis, with the university professors) was not expensive at all (this system, called Cifre, was invented to promote research in industry, because, up to now, french science and technology has nearly always been state funded and controlled).

I held different jobs inside Valeo, but always in the research department of the lighting systems division. The exact content of my work is of course confidential, but I may say that it combines applied mathematics, physics (electromagnetism ...) and programming number crunching applications (I don't like calling `development' this kind of programming, because the really tough part of the job lies in the numerical analysis, not in the programs themselves).

I hold 97 patents and wrote 13 technical papers. (To be precise, my name appears on 97 patents as inventor, but Valeo gets all the royalties: I never got a single penny from those patents, not even as bonus from Valeo, before year 2003 - it was not the custom here; it changed lately under german influence).

I am also member of Valeo's Comité d'Entreprise (a body elected by all members of the company at the location where I work - in Bobigny, north of Paris - and funded by the company - it is mandatory in France, by law; the Comité d'Entreprise try and organize social and cultural events for the company's members).

Beside my job in Valeo, I am teaching electrical and illumination engineering at the ESCPI (an engineering school of the CNAM, in Marne la Vallée, near Paris).

Here are links to Valeo (one of the few french multinational companies) and the official Cifre page:

 

What I like (and dislike)

I like:

2 minutes of the second movement of Joseph Haydn's string quartet Op.76 #5: click here 

I heartily dislike:

How to contact me

Just send an e-mail. You may use the following languages:

  1. french
  2. english
  3. german

You may even try latin, but I will badly need my dictionaries.

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