We are 6 students from the ENS, INSA de Lyon, and INP Grenoble Ensimag, three leading science and engineering college in France. Our scientific backgrounds cover Biology, Ecology, Physics and Informatics. Our various specialties will allow us to link the different aspects of the plastic pollution issue.

Cédric

I am 24 years old and I am the captain of the expedition ExploraGyre of OceaSciences. Native from Lyon, I discovered sailing during summer camps in Brittany and soon fell in love with this world. I continue my apprenticeship with more intensive courses at the Glénans school and begin the habitable sailing. In July 2016, I rented a sailboat for a week, to share these moments with my family and endorsed for the first time the role of captain. It was a very rewarding experience where I had to supervise 5 crew members who were riding for the first time on a sailing boat. It was a real success.
At the same time, I started studying biology after obtaining my Bac S in 2013. I obtained my degree in Biological and Biochemical Analysis in 2015 and was accepted to the ENS of Lyon. Today in the midst of a Master’s degree, I wish to take a gap year for this project. It is part of a desire to live my two passions. As a captain, I will look after the safety of my crew as I did in my previous experiences. I will also be responsible for the boat, its preparation, and routing.

Grégoire

I have this chance to have always known my passion. Fish care, diving or fishing, all is good to learn more about fish. Concerning my studies, after my level I did Biology selective courses in Saint-Louis (Paris), with the perspective of becoming a researcher. I entered the ENS de Lyon and my research internships related to the aquatic world. I will be the ecology specialist of the expedition. For my master internship, I was in Darwin (Australia) to work on fish migration using otolith geochemistry, among others. Just the time to keep studying and to prepare my contribution for the project. I look forward the departure!

Adrien

I have always been attracted to the aquatic environment and I had the chance to live on two beautiful islands (Réunion and New-Caledonia) where I was able to introduce myself to nautical disciplines such as scuba-diving and kitesurfing. Nature lover, I hesitated a long time to pursue biology studies but I finally turned to engineering. After selective classes in New-Caledonia, I join the Ensimag, in Grenoble, where I study computer science and applied Mathematics. I particularly love using this two subjects to solve broader scientific problematics for Physics or Biology. In recent years, I really started becoming aware of the gravity of our planet ecological and environmental situation. So when I heard about this project, I took the chance to be a part of it.

Guillaume

Adventure, sport, nature and team projects, here is what make want to do the ExploraGyre adventure. I, a twenty-three-year-old French engineering student, want to be part of research about environment preservation. The world I’d like to live in wouldn’t be degraded anymore, to guarantee that our children will have the capacity to live a life as rich as ours. Early on,I was interested in sports and discovering. After having practiced basketball, rugby, football, swimming and sailing, I started a quite different hobby: football refereeing, in 2009. I was dedicated to this sport during my high school years, in a sport-study program.After these sporty years, science came back in my life and I started studying in INSA, the biggest French engineering school, where I still am, and specialized myself in computing. These studies developed my physics, mechanics and computing skills which will be a complement to the crew, and will be needed to maintain technical and technological items for the journey.As soon as I heard about ExploraGyre, I wanted to be in, to offer my engineering skills, and to be part of this human and scientific adventure.

Cindy

Born and raised in Haute-Savoie, I went to Grenoble for Biology selective courses. I then passed the examination to integrate the ENS de Lyon. Although I want to work on immunology, I got immediately interested in the OceaSciences project. I was truly impressed by the ambition and touched by its ecological interest. I wanted to get involved, helping the guys to find sponsors or useful information. Since I was responsible for the communication of the sports association in my university, I naturally became responsible for the communication of OceaSciences too. I will handle the social networks and website of the association, especially during the expedition. I'm glad to participate in such an interesting adventure, even if I won't be onboard.

Julien

Science has always amazed me. I was one of those kids that always asked questions about everything. I had the chance that my grandparents often knew the answers - or at least, found ways for me to get some. Later, I had to choose one of these Sciences. I was admitted to french Biology selective courses in my hometown of Marseille. Two years later I started to study at the ENS de Lyon and once again I had to choose a way. For me, it will be Cellular and Aging Biology. However, knowledge is about multidisciplinary. Teamwork, especially with specialists from other fields would be an amazing experience to broader my mind, my scientific background, and to discover a new world. This is one of the goals of the Exploragyre project. In this adventure, I will provide to the team my knowledge and skills in both Cellular and Molecular Biology, and I hope to live a life-changing experience.