Education
- 2010 – HdR (Habilitation to conduct Research, Earth Sciences), Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, Lyon, France
- 2003 – Ph.D. (Material Physics), Universite Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
- 2002 – M.Sc. (Material Physics), Universite Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
- 1997 – B.Sc. (Geology and Geophysics), Bucharest University, Bucharest, Romania
Positions
- 2023 -: Senior Researcher (DR1), CNRS, Universite de Paris, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Paris, France
- 2024 – : Visiting Professor, The Research Center of the University of Bucharest (ICUB), University of Bucharest, Romania
- 2017 – : Adjunct Professor, The Center for Earth Evolution and Dynamics (CEED), University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- 2021 – 2023: Senior Researcher (DR2), CNRS, Universite de Paris, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Paris, France
- 2014 – 2021: Senior Researcher (DR2), CNRS, Laboratoire de Geologie de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Lyon, France
- 2007-2014 : Researcher (CR1), CNRS, Laboratoire de Sciences de la Terre, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Lyon, France
- 2007-2008 : Humboldt Fellow, Bayerisches Geoinstitut, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
- 2006-2007 : Visiting Researcher, Bayerisches Geoinstitut, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
- 2004-2006: Carnegie Fellow, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Geophysical Laboratory, Washington, DC, USA
- 2003-2004: Post-doctoral/Research associate, University of Minnesota, Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Minneapolis, MN, USA
- 1997-2003: Teaching assistant, Catholic University of Louvain, Faculty of Sciences, Geology Dept., Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
- 1995-1997: Research assistant, Bucharest University, Faculty of Geology and Geophysics, Mineralogy Dept., Bucharest, Romania
Major Awards
- Elected Fellow of the Academia Europaea, 2023
- Dana Medal of the Mineralogical Society of America, 2023
- Elected Fellow of the Mineralogical Society of America, 2022
- Ad-Astra Award for Excellence in Research, Earth and Space Sciences, 2016
- ERC Consolidator Grant “IMPACT: The Giant Impact and the Earth and Moon Formation”, 2015
- Research Excellence Medal of the European Mineralogical Union, 2013
- Prix Henri Buttgenbach, 2012, Academie Royale des sciences, des letters et des beaux-arts de Belgique, Bruxelles, Belgium
- Humboldt Fellowship, 2007, Bayerisches Geoinstitut, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany
- Carnegie Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2004, Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington, DC, USA
Scientific production
- Scientific publications: 123, with a total of 12500+ citations, 40 h-index, 85 i-10 index (acc. to Google Scholar)
- Patents: 3
- Oral presentations: 232 (out of which 97 were invited)
- Co-organized meetings, workshops, and schools: 10
Synergistic activities
- The Moon Impact – a geological story itinerant exhibition telling the story of the giant impact and the formation of the Earth and the Moon, in the context of the geological evolution of the solar system. Shows in Romania (2021), Bulgaria (2022), Germany (2023-2024).
- President of the 23rd General Meeting of the International Mineralogical Association, 2022 (IMA2022)
- Main author of the UMD package (Universal Molecular Dynamics, https://github.com/rcaracas/UMD_package) to analyze the results of ab initio molecular-dynamics simulations
- The WURM database (https://wurm.info/) of computed physical properties of minerals, with a special focus on Raman spectroscopy
- Participation in the ABINIT development (1998 – 2003, 2012-2015), last contribution: implementation of the elastic response in density functional perturbation theory in the projected augmented wavefunctions formalism
Supervision of researchers
- Current: 3 postdoctoral researchers, 3 PhD students, 2 visiting PhD students
- Former: 2 Marie-Curie postdoctoral fellows, 3 postdoctoral researchers, 2 research engineers, 1 exhibition curator, 9 PhD students, 10 Master students, 5 undergraduate students