Laurent is currently on leave from his position of full Professor of Physics at the Université Paris Diderot, Paris. He is a graduate from Ecole Normale Supérieure and holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics from Marseille University. He is a former fellow of the Institut Universitaire de France, which recognizes the top 2% of French university professors for their research excellence. In parallel, he held various academic positions : Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, USA, Visiting Senior Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, UK, Visiting Professor at the National Institute for Informatics in Tokyo, Japan. Laurent has been a consultant to various small and large companies, and is a co-inventor in several patents. Laurent is also a Senior Member of the IEEE and an elected member of the IEEE AASP Technical Committee as well as a former Associate Editor of IEEE TSALP. He has co-authored more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles, and over 120 conference proceedings.