Highlights

Our specificity in the field of environmental sciences relies on our ability to couple integrated field studies to advanced analytical tools, laboratory experiments, and theoretical approaches, in order to understand present and past biogeochemical reactions.

Our field sites include polluted as well as pristine environments, from temperate to tropical climatic zones and address major environmental protection and remediation issues. Some of our main advances in these fields have concerned the understanding of the molecular level reactions responsible for natural attenuation of trace metal transfers in fragile tropical ecosystems [Noël et al. 2014, 2015, in press], and of radionuclide immobilization downstream former mining areas [Othmane et al. 2013a,b; Morin et al. 2016].

At the laboratory, our mastering of (bio)minerals synthesis under controlled redox conditions have enabled us to elucidate sorption, incorporation and degradation mechanisms of major pollutants. We have thus developed innovative (bio)remediation processes for water and soil treatment [Guerbois et al. 2013 ; Ardo et et al. 2015 ; Seder-Colomina et al. 2015 ; Le Pape et al. 2016]; .

Our expertise in ab initio calculations and solid-state spectroscopy have enabled us to provide pioneering predictions of isotopic and elemental partitioning of geochemical tracers, in Earth’s surface minerals.

In the same way we have also pursued the development of a dating method that will allow us to link the weathering mineral record with paleo-climatic information.