Team

A graduate of Aalborg University, Denmark (M.Sc., PhD – civilingeniør, cand.polyt), Thomas spent a number of years at INRIA where he, among other things, developed and standardised OLSR – the predominant routing protocol for community, mesh, and tactical networks.

In 2004 he joined faculty at Ecole Polytechnique, France’s premiere technical and scientific university, where he is currently a professor. He leads the computer networking research group, and enjoys working with with some of France’s best students.

Thomas has developed, and coordinates, the computer networking curriculum at Ecole Polytechnique, teaches several core classes therein. He’s the academic director of the elite and multidisciplinary Master of Science and Technology programme “IoT: Innovation and Management”.

In terms of research, Thomas is, particularly, interested in “keeping the Internet connected”, even when faced with the immense influx of “new devices” and “new uses”. Thus, his work has emphasized development of algorithms, protocols, and architectures for the (immodestly) termed “future internet”: the Internet of Things (IoT), personal-area networks (PANs), ubiquitous networks, rendering the current Internet routing more “robust” and “adaptive”, as well as for securely supporting new services across the Internet. Thomas has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed academic publications, which have attracted more than 16000 citations.

With a particular affinity for “applicable research”,  Thomas remains an active contributor to standardisation. He  served as co-chair of the MANET AUTOCONF working group from 2005 until its closure in 2012, within the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) – the international standardization body behind the Internet and behind protocols such as TCP/IP, HTTP etc. Also within the IETF, he has served on the Routing Area Directorate, an advisory group of routing experts providing final document reviews as part of the standardization process, as well as other expert advice on routing-related topics. Thomas has authored, edited, and contributed substantially to 24 published IETF standards. He has also consulted for the development of IEEE 802.11s, as well as contributed the routing portions of the recently ratified ITU-T standard G.9903 for G3-PLC networks – the international standard upon which, e.g., the SmartGrid/ConnectedEnergy initiatives are built.

Thomas maintains long-standing formal industrial research collaborations with, e.g., Hitachi (Japan), Fujitsu (USA), Toyota (Japan), Qualcomm (USA), EDF (France), ERDF (France), and Sagemcom (France). He also maintains close collaborative relations with peers in industry, including BAE Systems (UK), Cisco Systems (USA & France), and Alcatel-Lucent (France). He was involved in the  ADEME “SOGrid” project, on the future French national “Smart Grid”. Thomas holds the Cisco endowed “Internet of Everything” academic chaire at Ecole Polytechnique.

Thomas is a senior member of the IEEE, and was named an “IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Contributor”, as part of the inaugural 2021 class.