You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life. Albert Camus
If Albert Camus is right, I have little chance of being happy as searching for what happiness consists of is exactly what I decided to do in 2010 when I joined Ruut Veenhoven, one of the world leaders in the field of happiness research at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. Since then, I investigate the societal and cultural factors that influence people’s happiness as well as the way people answer to questions related to happiness in nations, regions and cultures. My main fields of interests linked to happiness are:
- Hierarchy
- Education
- Family structures
- Freedom
- Humor
- Cultural response styles
Thankfully, happiness is highly linked to finding meaning and purpose, and to me, contributing to the understanding of happiness is a way of finding purpose. Thus, the situation for us, researchers in happiness might not be as dark as Camus predicted…
About me
PhD in happiness studies (2016) with the dissertation ‘A geography of happiness. A comparative exploration of the case of France’, I work on quantitative research to discover the determinants of happiness across regions and nations. I am also interested in the cross-cultural differences in responding to happiness questions. I am currently working with mixed methods (quantitative-qualitative) to gain deeper insight of what makes people happy or unhappy.
I co-founded a firm, Atelier CMJN (www.ateliercmjn.fr), which stands at the crossroads between architecture, sociology and environmental engineering.
I am the scientific director of La Fabrique Spinoza (www.fabriquespinoza.fr), a Paris-based think-tank promoting happiness for citizens, through rising awareness, concrete solutions, education and training.
Since 2010, what I do, what I love to do, and what makes sense to me are three things fully in line.
Curriculum
- 02/2016: PhD at Erasmus University of Rotterdam with Johan Heilbron and Ruut Veenhoven
- 2010-2016: PhD student in happiness studies- Erasmus university of Rotterdam with Ruut Veenhoven
- 06/2015-ongoing: Research fellow at Sodexo Institute for Quality of Life
- 2011-ongoing: Scientific Director of La Fabrique Spinoza
- 2010-ongoing: cofounder of Atelier CMJN (www.ateliercmjn.fr)
- 2008-2009: Consulting in sustainability
- 2007: Research fellow-TU Delft (the Netherlands)
- 2006: Research fellow-USC(USA)
- 2005-2006: MSc-KTH(Sweden)
- 2001-2005:MSc-INSA (France)
