Since 2014, I am Professor of Statistics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). I am mainly teaching Mathematical Statistics, Multivariate Statistics and Statistical Learning. My main research fields are directional statistics, high dimensional statistics and dimension reduction techniques. I have always been interested in nonparametric methods such as rank-based methods or more recently methods based on optimal transport. I am also interested in asymptotics in general. I am currently Associate Editor of the journals Bernoulli, Electronic Journal of Statistics and Journal of Multivariate Analysis. I have also been Associate Editor for Computational Statistics and Data Analysis and for Statistics and Probability Letters. I am an elected member of the International Statistical Institute. I received in 2011 the annual prize in Mathematics and the Adolphe Wetrems prize in 2021 both from the Belgian Academy of Sciences. I am currently the president of the jury of the specialized master in Data Science, Big Data at ULB. You can download my CV here.





Selected recent publications




  • Nonparametric measure-transportation-based methods for directional data, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B, to appear (coauthors: M. Hallin and H. Liu).
  • Power enhancement for dimension detection of Gaussian signals, Statistica Sinica, to appear (coauthor: G. Bernard).
  • Preliminary Multiple-Test Estimation, with Applications to k-sample Covariance Estimation, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 117, 1904-1915 (2022) (coauthors: D. Paindaveine and J. Rasoafaraniaina).
  • Testing for positive expectation dependence with application to model comparison, Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Vol. 101, 163-172 (2021) (coauthors: M. Denuit and J. Trufin).
  • On optimal tests for rotational symmetry against new classes of hyperspherical distributions, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol. 115, 1873-1887 (2020) (coauthors: E. Garcia-Portugués and D. Paindaveine).
  • On new Sobolev tests of uniformity on the circle with extension to the sphere, Bernoulli, Vol. 26, 2226-2252 (2020) (coauthors: S.R. Jammalamadaka and S. Meintanis).
  • Detecting the direction of a signal on high-dimensional spheres: non-null and Le Cam optimality results, Probability Theory and Related Fields, Vol. 176, 1165-1216 (2020) (coauthor: D.Paindaveine).
  • Testing for principal component directions under weak identifiability, Annals of Statistics, Vol. 48, 324-345 (2020) (coauthors: D.Paindaveine and J.Remy).






Editorial activities



  • Associate Editor of the Electronic Journal of Statistics (2023-…)
  • Associate Editor of Bernoulli (2022-…)
  • Associate Editor of the Journal of Multivariate Analysis (2016-…)
  • Associate Editor of Statistics and Probability Letters (2014-2022)
  • Associate Editor of Computational Statistics and Data Analysis (2020-2022)





Distinctions and Awards


  • 2024-2029: Elected member of the Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium Collegium (classe des Sciences).
  • 2021: Adolphe Wetrems Prize of the Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium. Created in 1926, this prize is awarded each year to the researcher who has made a significant and recent scientific advance in Mathematics or Physics.
  • 2021: Laureate of the Fonds Thelam.
  • 2013: Elected member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI).
  • 2011: Annual price in applied Mathematics (prix du concours annuel) of the Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium.





Academic services at ULB



  • President of the jury of the specialized Master in Data Science, Big Data (2018-present)
  • Secretary of the jury of the Master in Statistics (2017-present)