Short CV

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

2021 – : 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
2017 – : Adjunct Professor, The Center for Earth Evolution and Dynamics (CEED), University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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

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 publications: 119, with a total of 12100+ citations, 38 h-index, 81 i-10 index (acc. to Google Scholar)
Patents: 3
Oral presentations: 226 (out of which 96 were invited)
Co-organized meetings, workshops, and schools: 10

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

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

Full CV