Core Team

Having completed BEng and MEng degrees in electronic and electrical engineering at the University of Bath, UK, Jules continued to complete a PhD on micro- and nano-gap based biosensors. During his PhD he also co-founded a startup specialising on producing hardware and software for dynamic reconfiguration of energy arrays, which was awarded the David Embleton innovation award. He has also worked with the SetSquared business incubater in Bath to facilitate technology transfer.

Since moving to Grenoble, France, his research has first focused on developing the world’s first solubilised enzymatic fuel cell using glyconanoparticles, and later, developing paper-based biofuel cells.

A graduate of CEFAM (centre détude franco-américan) and Temple University (Fox School of Business) in Philidelphia, Rodolphe is a specialist in international business development with more than 20 years of experience. He has been heavily involved in the structuring of business units with a strong commercial orientation in technologies with a social and environmental impact.

His career in several fields gives him the technical knowledge and leadership skills to direct international commercial projects. He has contributed to the training and management of up to 200 salespeople in support for BtoB and BtoBtoC solutions. These listening, business management and project structuring skills make Rodolphe a partner of choice for our company.

Michael Holzinger is CNRS senior researcher in the Biosystèmes Électrochimiques & Analytiques (BEA) team at the Département de Chimie Moléculaire (DCM) in Grenoble. Michael started his academic career in the late nineties working on the functionalization of carbon nanotubes at University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany. Then, he joined the group of Dr. Patrick Bernier at the University of Montpellier II, France and the Dr. Siegmar Roth team at Max Planck Institute for solid state research in Stuttgart, Germany. 

After a short stay at the Robert Bosch GmbH in Schwieberdingen, Germany, he joins the BEA team at the DCM in 2006. Since that time his research interest is focused on the development of biosensors and biofuel cells based on functionalised nanomaterials.

Andrew Gross is an esteemed early career CNRS researcher at the Département de Chimie Moléculaire, Université Grenoble Alpes, France. He holds a MSc in analytical chemistry from the University of Surrey, UK, and a PhD in electrochemistry and surface chemistry from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. 

Before his PhD, Andrew worked in an industrial role as an analytical chemist at Hill Labs, a leading environmental testing laboratory in the environmental section. After his doctorate, Andrew returned to Europe for postdoctoral research at the University of Bath, UK, on portable electrochemical sensors, and a second postdoc position at Université Grenoble Alpes on micro/nanostructured electrodes for chemical sensors and biofuel cells. Andrew has also worked with the SetSquared business incubator in Bath as a Commercialisation Fellow to facilitate technology transfer.

Jean-Francis Bloch, is a professor at Grenoble INP/Pagora and a researcher at the 3SR Lab. He holds a doctorate (Grenoble, France) in process engineering, an MSc (Grenoble, France) in Mechanics as well as an MSc (Lille, France) in automation, production and industrial computing, and an Engineering diploma (Lille, France). He has directed 20 doctoral theses. He has experience in co-ordination of technological projects, leadership in surface and 3D structure characterisation, physical properties of fibrous materials industrial process optimisation in particular in the context of paper manufacturing. 

He has published more than 300 international communications and has also acted as a reviewer for 28 international scientific journals. He has acted as a board member for Grenoble Institute of Technology for the board of: (i) Governors, since 2009; (ii) Management, since 2010, (iii) Scientific Council, from 2003-2012; and (iv) Executive, since 2015.

After completing two MSc degrees: Chemistry, UofO (USA) and Formulation, UCBL (France), Marie Berthuel embarked on a PhD in micro-structured biosensors, and is now in her final year. During her PhD, she has developed a strong knowledge of electrochemistry and enzymatic reactions. 

Marie has been involved in many student associations as well as co-supervising the organisation of numerous biotechnology events. This has involved careful networking to develop close partnerships with leading public and private enterprises. Marie managed the media generation and communication of these events. Her technical expertise and ability to convey complex ideas in a simple manner makes her an ideal representative for BeFC. 

Stéphane is a veteran entrepreneur in high tech companies, with various positions as adviser and/or board member. He was the Founder of Tronics Microsystems, a manufacturer of MEMS products. For a period of more than 20 years, Tronics was built from almost nothing up to a company with 100 people, with fabrication facilities in both Europe and the United States. 

Stéphane was key in the different development and financing phases from VC funding in the early 2000s, an IPO in February 2015, and a trade sell exit to TDK Group in January 2017.

Formerly, Stéphane had years of experience in R&D in MEMS and optoelectronics and associated technology transfers for CEA-LETI. He graduated from Ecole Centrale de Paris (Engineering MSc) and from Grenoble Institute of Technology (PhD in Optoelectronics from Grenoble-INP).

 After graduating from HEC in 1985, Stéphane Bouchard started as an external auditor at Deloitte France from 1986 to 1991. Then, from 1991 to 1998, he was Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and Human Resources Officer at RP Scherer (Catalent Pharma). In 1998, he joined the company Pierre FABRE, where he was Chief of Staff to the President from 1998 to 2000, then CFO for the Pharmaceuticals Division. 

From 2003 to 2017, Stéphane Bouchard was World Wide Controller at Becton Dickinson Pharmaceutical Systems. He was also President of Becton Dickinson France, during the same period, mainly as Secretary General for this entity. Today Stéphane Bouchard is the VP Finance at Thermo Fisher, United Kingdom, a position held since June 2017.

Serge Cosnier is currently a Research Director at CNRS and director of the Department of Molecular Chemistry at the Université Grenoble Alpes, France. Serge’s activity is focused on the molecular electrochemistry and bioelectrochemistry with the development of biological sensors, bioenzymatic fuel cells and bionanomaterials based on carbon nanotubes. 

He has authored over 365 publications, 3 books and holds over 25 patents. He is member of the Council of the Bioelectrochemical Society (2016-2019) and Specialty Chief Editor of Frontiers in Analytical Chemistry. Serge was elected member of the Academia Europaea in 2013 and member of the European Academy of Sciences (EurASc) in 2019.

Martin Thuo is the principal investigator in the ‘soft matter and matter transport’ laboratory at Iowa State University in the USA.  He is a specialist in Materials Science and specifically, has been a Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard University from 2009 to 2011, in the team of G. Whitesides. Martin develops frugal solutions to some of the world’s most challenging problems. 

Martin is an inventor of 5 patents with more than 10 patents pending and has been recognised for his work with awards from universities and professional bodies. As an academic- entrepreneur, he is the founder of SAFI-Tech Inc. (USA), a company commercialising heat-free solder.

Christian Simcic graduated from INSA Lyon France (Génie Electrique), and from the INSEAD/CEDEP General Management programme. He joined Avery Dennison in 1979 as a project engineer. During his 29-year career with the company, he was regularly promoted. This led him to live in Europe, the Far East and the US where he was promoted to Group Vice President of Roll Materials Worldwide in 2000. Under his leadership the business doubled to reach a 3-billion USD turnover. 

Since leaving Avery Dennison in 2008 he has provided advisory services to a variety of private equity firms, focusing on acquisition due diligence support, site visits, market analysis, risk and opportunity assessment, and identification of acquisition candidates. These companies include Allflex (2012-2013) and Loparex (2015-2019).