People

Sébastien Merkel is a professor in the Unité Matériaux et Transformations at the Université de Lille, France. He is also the current president for Mineral and Rock Physics and council member at the American Geophysical Union.

His research focuses on understanding the dynamics and formation of the deeper portions of the Earth. He performs experiments under the pressure and temperature of the Earth’s interior to study microstructures in polycrystals, their mechanical behaviour, and their relation to phase transformations. He then integrates the experimental results into polycrystal numerical models to understand wave propagation through complex microstructures and compare the results of these models to seismic observations. Sébastien Merkel is the principal investigator of the ERC Project HotCores and will devote most of his research time to the project.

More information at Sébastien Merkel's homepage and live news on his Twitter feed.

Julien Chantel is a Research Engineer for the Université de Lille at the Unité Matériaux et Transformations. Julien Chantel obtained a PhD at the Bayerisches Geoinstitut, University of Bayreuth, Germany, followed by post-doctoral fellowships at the Université Clermont Auvergne, France, and Case Western University, United States. He is an expert in high pressure mineral physics and on performing experiments at synchrotron sources. He will assist the HotCore project for all experiments and staff supervision.

Nadège Hilairet is a Research Scientist for CNRS at the Unité Matériaux et Transformations. She has worked on topics such as subduction zones minerals plasticity, high pressure / high temperature deformation experiments, modeling of polycrystal behavior, and the origin of deep Earthquakes. She will assist the HotCore project for deformation experiments, the postmortem sample characterization, and student supervision.

Hélène Ginestet is a PhD student at the Université de Lille. First trained in Earth science, she then followed a curriculum in general physics, which she is concluded with a master's degree entitled Matter, Molecules, and their Environments in 2023. Hélène Ginestet joined the HotCores project in February 2023 for her master's internship. She then continued for a PhD  at the Université de Lille, Unité Matériaux et Transformations since September 2023. She is working on the properties of metals at high pressure and high temperature through experiments at the European XFEL.

Léo Carin is a PhD student at the Univ. Lille working on the HotCores project since October 2024. He is running experiments with our new torsion deformation device, as well as mechanical frictions measurements on metals at high temperature. Léo Carin received a master's degree at the Université de Limoges and ENSIL-ENSCI engineering school. He first joined the project for four months starting in February 2024 and continued for a PhD project.

Efim Kolesnikov is working as a post-doctoral fellow on the HotCores project since November 2024. He is in charge of new experiments at combined high pressure, high temperature, and dynamic conditions on iron alloys. Prior to joining the HotCores project, Efim Kolesnikov received a doctorate degree at the Institute for Mineralogie at Universität Münster, Germany.

Benjamin Montout-Ehrmann is a second year master student following the Matter, Molecules, and their Environments program at Univ. Lille. He is joining the project from February until June 2025 as part of his master's project. He will work with us on the physical properties of iron and iron alloys at Earth's inner core conditions using experiments at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) and the European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser Facility (European XFEL).

Oihan Poggi-Vérignon is pursuing a technical diploma in physical measurements at the Technology Institute of the Université de Lille. He is with us for 5 months since March 2025 to help us with visco-elastic measurements on metals.

Idir Driche is a first-year master student in Applied Physics at the Université de Lille. He joined the project for 2 months starting June 2024. He will help us update our Raman system and optic table design for our new diamond anvil cell experiments.

Aeryn Meurillon is a student for a technical degree at the Technology Institute of the Université de Lille. She joined the project for 2 and 1/2 months starting April 2024. She will help us starting visco-elastic properties measurements on metals with our new instruments.