I received my Ph.D. from INRIA (French National Institute in Computer Science and Automation), in collaboration with CNES (French National Center for Spatial Studies) and University Paris-11 Orsay. It was followed by a post-doctoral position at the Sino-French Laboratory of Computer Sciences, Automation, and Applied Mathematics (LIAMA), CASIA. I was an Associate Professor at the Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing) from 2000 and 2012.