Sylvain Guiriec
		Associate Professor of Astrophysics at the George Washington University (GW) Research Scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (NASA/GSFC)

I was born in 1978 in Brest, France. In 2002–2003, I obtained a Masters degree in material sciences as well as an Engineering degree in atomic and molecular modeling and simulation, and a mechanical engineering degree from the Institut Superieur des Materiaux du Mans, France. I worked for two years as a young researcher at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA, and at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain, where I studied radiation damage for the nuclear research field. In 2004, I obtained a Masters degree in astrophysics, planetology and space sciences & techniques and majored in aerospace science from Paul Sabatier University and the Institut Superieur de l’Aeronautique et de l’Espace (ISAE/SUPAERO), France. I received my PhD in December 2007 in astrophysics from the Montpellier 2 University, France. My thesis was both theoretical and instrumental: (i) I studied the theoretical aspects of Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) and made predictions of observability with the NASA Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (Fermi), and (ii) I participated to the integration and tests of the Fermi/Large Area Telescope (LAT), for which I developed an algorithm for suppressing its proton background. After the launch of Fermi mid-2008, I joined the National Space Science and Technology Center at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, USA, with a 3-year postdoctoral position. My main efforts focused on the observational analysis of GRBs, leading to the discovery of the first clear evidence for photospheric emission in their prompt emission. I also worked on Magnetars, Solar Flares and Terrestrial Gamma-ray Flashes. Since 2011, I have been working at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA, first as a fellow of the NASA Postdoctoral Program and then as an Assistant Research Scientist affiliated with the University of Maryland, College Park and the Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science & Technology. In 2016, I joined the George Washington University, USA, and I am now an associate professor of astrophysics and a research scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA. I continue my work on the modeling of GRBs as well as on their use as probes for fundamental physics and cosmology for which I received the Young Scientist Prize in Astrophysics in 2015 from the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) and the prestigious Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal from NASA in 2017 for "Outstanding contribution to the Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) research field in proposing a new GRB prompt emission model, which solves a long lasting astrophysical problem, and in devising a relation that establishes GRBs as a new type of cosmological standard candles." I am now