Before landing in Bretagne—land of cider, butter, where we see the sun a few times a day—I spent my time teaching undergrads: linear algebra (a lot, because I loved it), calculus, point-set topology, and all that.
Since moving to Rennes, I’ve mostly taught M2 classes—Riemannian geometry, differential topology, and the like—almost every year, or maybe every other year. Teaching isn’t technically part of my CNRS job description, but, in the doses that I do it, I love it. Whether I’m any good at it, let's say "inspiring", is another question...
Current teaching
Master 2 level class (48 hours).Past teaching
Master 2 level classes, ranging from 36-48 hours of lecture time.- Differential topology and de Rham cohomology (2024)
- Differential topology and de Rham cohomology (2023)
- Differential topology and de Rham cohomology (2022)
- Fundamentals of differential geometry and topology (2020)
- Fundamentals of differential geometry and topology (2019)
- Fundamentals of differential geometry and topology (2018)
- Small eigenvalues of the Laplacian. (2023)
- Flexibility in geometry: I discussed, following Geiges's notes, the proof that open invariant differential relations satisfy the h-principle, focusing on the existence of immersions into euclidean space of the same dimension and on the sphere eversion. (2022)
- Homology and cohomology of groups: Start from the beginning and prove the Eilenberg-Ganea theorem. (2016)
- Existence of minimal surfaces: Solution of the Plateau problem in R^n and of its generalisations if one replaces the disk by other surfaces. (2015)
Graduate students
Having graduate students is what I like most of my job. Here is my math genealogy.
Current
- Thibault Favier, working on his Ph.D. at the Université de Rennes since the fall of 2023. Supervised jointly with Anna Lenzhen.
- Sophie Wright, working on her Ph.D. at the University of Bristol since the fall of 2023. Supervised jointly with Viveka Erladsson.
Dealt with
- Marie Trin, graduated at the Université de Rennes in the spring of 2024 and is now a postdoc at the MPI Leipzig.
- Lucien Grillet, graduated from the Université Rennes 1 in the fall of 2022 and is now a data scientist at Chouette.
- José Andrés Rodriguez Migueles, graduated from the Université Rennes 1 in 2018. Currently a junior researcher at CIMAT.
- Cyril Lacoste, graduated from the Université Rennes 1 in 2018 and is currently professeur d'informatique en classes preparatoires scientifiques au Lycee Kerichen in Brest.
- Maxime Bergeron, graduated from the University of British Columbia in 2016 and works currently for Riskfuel.
- Nina White, graduated from the University of Michigan in 2012. She is currently a lecturer at the University of Michigan.
- Johanna Mangahas, graduated from the University of Michigan in 2010. Johannas is currently an associate professor at the University at Buffalo.
- Ian Biringer, graduated from the University of Chicago in 2009. Currently Ian is a professor at Boston College.
More students I have had something to do with
Master students (M2 at the Université Rennes)
- Khoi Nguyen Nguyen Ba, 2025. Thurston's classification of mapping classes a la Bers.
- Victor Fuentes, 2024. Classical theorems in Riemannian geometry.
- Yago Moreno, 2023. The Benjamini-Schramm theorem on the recurrence of distributional limits of planar graphs.
- Thibault Favier, 2023. Failure of Teichmueller space to be CAT(0).
- Marie Trin, 2021. Thurston's compactification of Teichmueller space via geodesic currents.
- Yulin Gong, 2020. Mostow's rigidity theorem (via BCG).
- Lucien Grillet, 2019. The Poincaré conjecture in higher dimensions.
- Cyril Lacoste, 2015. Virtual cohomological dimension of SLnZ.
- José Andrés Rodriguez Migueles, 2015. Mostow's Rigidity Theorem.
Undergraduate projects (always in Rennes)
- Mattis Chick and Christophe Martinez, 2023. Construction of the p-adics.
- Josselin Miss and Marius Breton, 2024. Galois theory.
- Margot Savy, 2025. Coverings and fundamental group.
Students (at the time) that come some time to work with me in Rennes.
- Tommaso Cremaschi, May and June 2016.
- James Farre, May and June 2017.
- Thi Hanh Vo, February 2020.
- Rodrigo de Pool, April to June 2024.