François Sillion

An “École Normale Supérieure” graduate, with a PhD from Université Paris-Sud, he has held researcher positions at Cornell University (USA), CNRS (Paris and Grenoble, France) and Inria (Grenoble and Paris, France). He was an invited researcher at MIT (USA) and Microsoft Research, and an associate professor at Ecole Polytechnique (France).

His research dealt with Computer Graphics techniques: 3D models, expressive rendering, lighting simulation, large scale visualization, data acquisition from real images… he has advised fifteen PhDs, published a hundred research papers as well as two books, on lighting simulation and on digital appearance modeling. He received The Eurographics association’s Outstanding Technical Contribution Award in 2009.

At Inria, he held a number of positions, from leader of the ARTIS project-team to director of the Grenoble Rhône-Alpes research center, to Deputy CEO for Science. He developed support mechanisms for exploratory research and interdisciplinary projects following Inria’s scientific strategy, and coordinated the research aspects of the government plan for artificial intelligence in 2018.

In 2019 he founded, and directed until 2021, Uber’s Advanced Technologies Center in Paris, dedicated to digital technologies for advanced mobility, in particular in support of Urban Air Mobility.

In 2022, he is chief technology & digital officer of CNES.