About

My name is Loann Brahimi and I’m a 27 years old French Data Scientist and Python/C++ developer. I have a PhD in Astrophysics from the University of Montpellier (France).

My professional insight

I’m passionate in tackling complex problems from their conception stage to the application of the solutions in the real life. I really like to make use of Mathematics, Statistics in Artificial Intelligence augmented algorithms with as much originality as possible in order to create cutting edge technologies. As an example, I’m doing research about the different possible ways to overcome financial markets using original numerical methods. By the way, I think financial markets are the best training lab for every Data Scientist passionated about feature egineering and who want to develop his/her skills.

I also have a strong interest for start-up projects as they are generally growth hacking and market disruption oriented. I really enjoy working in an environment with a certain level of pressure and challenge. From Astrophysicist training, I have a vision of the world chaos theory and volatily oriented. In this frame, I find extremly interesting to understand the common metrics of the projects that disrupt the market and see how volatile these metrics are. In this frame, Artificial Intelligence has a great role to play.

Because I’m coming from an academic environment, where I have developed very deep analytical and theoretical skills, I take a particular attention in developing my skills in Software Engineering. This, in order to reach the good equilibrium as an actor in a constantly evolving Information & Technology field.

My story

Since I was young, I have been passionate about Sciences in a general way. I was in particular, interested by the sciences of our Universe, Earth sciences and Cartography sciences.

After getting my scientific baccalaureate (High School Diploma), I decided to start sudies in fundamental physics. A discipline I considered (probably naively) as the common denominator between all other existing sciences. Passionated by what I learned : Electromagnetic theories, Field Theories, Thermodynamics, Chaotic Systems, Quantum Mecanics, Fluid and Transport Theories … I decided to push my training up to the Doctorate.

So I started my doctorate in Astrophysics under the supervision of Alexandre Marcowith, a world class Astrophysicist, about the problematic of the Cosmic Rays origins and transport in the galactic Interstellar Medium, turbulent and magnetized medium in perpetual interaction with the other Astrophysical objects constituing our galaxy. On that occasion, I had the chance to discover and develop an expertise in Science Computing. Indeed, from a purely numerical point of view, my work consisted in conceiving Cosmic Rays numerical transport codes ie. numerical resolution of coupled partial differential equations systems. I created my own transport code (CR SPECTRA) and I contributed to the development of the RAMSES code, an Astrophysics code existing since, developed by more than 200 Astrophysicists and dedicated to Astrophysical simulations. I also got the opportunity to present my research results a multiple international conferences in front of hundreds of researchers.

This experience has been extremely rewarding since it allowed me to open my eyes about the importance of the algorithms in the resolution of extremely complex problematics. In particular during my thesis, I studied the different theories of turbulence and chaos in a more general way, and I saw how these problems are tackled from an algorithmical point of view.

Although passionate by the discipline, I decided to not continue my Astrophysicist carrer. We actually live in a world which is the perfect illustration of the phenomenons we observe in chaos theories and even more especially in turbulence theories. That is why I’m convinced that my expertise can find practical applications in our civilisation and in order to build a better world. This is one of the reasons why I decided to tackle what looks obviously like a turbulent medium, financial markets. I work to the conception of an algorithmic trading environment prototype and an exotic trading strategy that takes advantage of turbulence in financial markets without trying to predict the future knowing the past (what actually most of the non-arbitrage strategies use to do). In order to do this, I use the recent technological advances on Deep Learning I combine with genetic evolution theory.

My hobbies

I’m passionate about mountain. So I got used to going there very frequently, and I intend to settle there at the very first opportunity. This is an expectional environment, extremely alive and dangerous at time that we have to preserve as much as possible.

I do a lot of sports, I pratice outside rock climbing for two years now. I’m able to lead climb in routes rated 6b (5.10c), and I hope I will come back very soon to actualise this value ! What I like about this sport, beyond the physical engagement, is the mental engagment. When you lead climb, you can feel a lot of fear of falling but you can progress only if you learn to apprehend this fear. Success on what you think impossible or even dangerous is extremely rewarding.

I also pratice other sports such as running, hiking, football and musculation.