Jean-François Chartier

I completed a postdoc in Information Science in 2017, after obtaining a Ph.D. in cognitive computing and a master’s degree in sociology. My academic background is similar to many postdoc fellows – I have always aimed for a career as a researcher in academia. I developed my career accordingly: scholarship marathons, conferences, publications, teaching, eventually my first grants, and more publications! And then near the end of my Ph.D., doubts began to set in…

I continued for a few more years, namely by doing a postdoc. But parallel to this I was also preparing my exit by trying to understand how to make the transition between academia and industry. I am currently working as a data scientist for an insurance company, as part of the Research and Modeling team. My experience is recent, but in general, very positive. I continue to be involved in university research projects and my challenge these days is to find the balance between these two fields because I like the way they complement each other.