Sylvain Girard is a full Professor in Physics at the Hubert Curien Laboratory (University of Saint-Etienne, France) since 2012. He obtained his MSc and his PhD degree in Optics Photonics & Microwaves from University of Saint-Etienne in 2000 and 2003, respectively. From 2004 to 2012, he was Research Engineer and Senior Expert (2011) at the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA DAM) in charge of the vulnerability and hardening studies of photonics and optoelectronic technologies for the Laser Mégajoule project. His research interest include: optical fibers, punctual and distributed fiber sensors, imaging systems, image sensors, sensing in harsh environments (space, aeronautics, nuclear, high energy physics), radiation effects. He has published >160 papers in international scientific journals, authored 5 patents and gave more than 25 invited talks. He is the recipient of the 2013 IEEE NPSS