After studying at the University of Aix-Marseille and an ERASMUS semester at the University of Lund (Sweden), Sévérine Martini defended her thesis at the MIO at the end of 2013 on the theme: "Bioluminescence: a proxy for biogeochemical activity in the deep environment? Laboratory and in situ study of bioluminescence in relation to environmental variables". In the course of her work, she juggled statistical analyses of time series recorded at the ANTARES site in the Mediterranean with laboratory experiments using a bioluminescent bacterial strain. Following her thesis, Sévérine undertook several post-doctoral positions, at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement in Banyuls/mer, at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California and then at the Laboratoire d'Océanographie in Villefranche.
Sévérine will be joining the MIO as a member of the EMBIO team, where she will work closely with the cross-disciplinary 'biological pump' team. In her research project, she will be seeking to understand the impact of bioluminescence (from bacteria to zooplankton), in a dark environment, on the biological carbon pump. To do this, she will be using innovative tools adapted for detecting bioluminescence in situ, such as the BathyBot benthic robot and the CENSOR miniaturised beacon (already deployed on elephant seals), as well as laboratory experiments and modelling to quantify the importance of visual detection of bioluminescence by zooplankton.