Project Management Team

The Project Management Team (PMT), in charge of day-to-day management, anticipating any problem or delay, finding and proposing adequate solutions to reach the objectives of the project and solving any conflict that may appear within the consortium, is composed of:

Laurent Mortier is professor of physical oceanography at ENSTA Paris and research scientist at UME, common research center of ARMINES and ENSTA Paris. He manages the Paris region joint master for Atmosphere, Ocean and Climate (WAPE). His research interests focus on the mesoscale circulation in regional seas. Since 2003, Laurent Mortier has been playing a major role in France to develop the glider national facility and in Europe to develop the EGO coordination between European institutions and SMEs. Laurent Mortier was the coordinator of the FP7 design study “Glider for Research, Ocean Observation and Management” (GROOM) for a European Research Infrastructure and of the H2020 project “Bringing together Research and Industry for the Development of Glider Environmental Services” (BRIDGES) for the development of two deep glider prototypes. He was also the PI of the French “Mediterranean Observing System” (MOOSE) where gliders are routinely deployed for several years and he is actively conducting the coordination of similar observing systems in the Mediterranean.

Pierre Testor is a physical oceanographer at LOCEAN, Paris, France. He has been the first in Europe to deploy gliders in 2004 and has participated in the scientific animation of the worldwide glider community since then, in particular through the EGO network. He has helped to launch OceanGliders as an associated program of the GOOS in 2016 and is presently co-chair of it. Scientifically, he is concerned with ocean variability with emphasis on observations of ocean circulation and mixing using various platforms, and gliders in particular. He is more specifically interested in 1) the regional oceanography of the Mediterranean Sea and the development of long-term ocean observatories in this hot spot of climate change and biodiversity (he is co-coordinating a northwestern component, Mediterranean Ocean Observing System for the Environment, MOOSE), 2) the meso and submeso scale phenomena and their role in the cross-slope exchanges, the winter water formation, and the physical-biological coupling. 

Yves Ponçon is an engineer from ENSTA where he followed the joint master for Atmosphere, Ocean and Climate (WAPE) coordinated by Laurent Mortier. He developed interest in physical oceanography during his internships at the University of Cape Town, at IRD in New-Caledonia, and CEREMA in Brest. He then worked as science coordinator for the French Embassy in Stockholm, promoting French-Swedish scientific relations as part of the FR-SW strategic partnership for innovation, digitalisation and green solutions. He joined the GROOM II project at the end of 2021 to support the project coordination and organisation. He is also in charge of the coordination of the Bioglider project.

After several years working as a Finance and Appraisal Project Officer for the INTERREG France (Channel) England Programme, including 5 years based in Norwich (UK), she joined ARMINES in spring 2020, supporting the researchers of a wide range of collaborating centers by managing the financial and administrative aspects of their EU projects in which ARMINES is involved as a partner. She joined the coordination team of GROOM II project in summer 2021 and is working closely with the colleagues  based at ENSTA for a successful management of the project.

After a 3 years experience at CNRS, Mathieu joined the EU Department of ARMINES in 2010 where he manages the administrative, financial and contractual aspects of EU funded projects coordinated by ARMINES and assists Scientists/Engineers  for the preparation of EU project proposals. Since January 2021, Mathieu has been appointed Head of the ARMINES’ EU Dept. where he continues to prepare, submit and coordinate EU Projects as well as manage the team working on European Projects within ARMINES and its partner engineering schools. Mathieu helped set up and launch the GROOM II project and handed over to Clara Flack in summer 2021.However, Mathieu is still involved in the project, in particular to support Clara Flack in her new missions.