Quentin was born and raised in La Rochelle, a historic harbor in the southwest of France. He received his B.Sc. (2008) and M.Sc. (2010) from the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, which included a six-month research internship at The Scripps Research Institute with Prof. Phil S. Baran, where he helped to initiate a fruitful long-term collaboration with the pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb. After falling in love with total synthesis and San Diego’s weather, Quentin returned to the Baran laboratory for his Ph.D., where he focused on C–H functionalization methods and their applications to complex molecule synthesis. In 2015, Quentin left California’s palm trees for New York’s pine trees and started a postdoctoral appointment at Cornell University with Prof. Brett P. Fors. There, he developed photocatalytic systems to enable control over polymer architectures through light irradiation. In addition to these photocontrolled polymerizations, he worked on the synthesis of sustainable polymers from biorenewable monomers.

Outside the lab, Quentin likes playing sports including soccer, volleyball, and tennis, as well as rooting for his favorite teams and athletes on TV. Other hobbies include reading, playing chess, cooking, and enjoying a live-show. Quentin is also an avid traveler and loves to try all culinary specialties of the countries he visits, especially the weird ones.

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