[Portrait] Philippe Martin, teacher-researcher in geography

What is your research about?

My research focuses on three main areas:

• On the characterisation of landforms, in particular by using fractal geometry;
• On the functioning of the catchment areas in high (Cévennes episode - flood) and low water (impluviosity - drought) ;
• On an epistemological reflection aimed at proposing a theory for geography, a physics of geography.

What are your current scientific activities?

Two latest references:
MARTIN PH., 2020, Modelling losses in a live bed feeding a binary karst: Example of the Gardon between Ners and Russan (Gard, France). PhysioGéo, https://doi.org/10.4000/physio-geo.10784 p.1-62.
Forriez M., Martin Ph. Nottale L, 2020, "Multiscalar structures in geography: Contributions of the scale relativity", Cartographica [in press].

My current focus is on the HydroPo programmep (2017 - 2020) on the drought in the Cévennes (Gardon and Cèze) and on the imperative need to reinstall, as soon as possible and with great delay, the hydrometric network of 16 stations which should inform the population and the authorities throughout the summer about the water level in the rivers...

Why did you choose to work in academic research?

In order to access happiness, provided that one thinks of oneself as free, which is what the status of teachers-researchers in France allows one to do.

What advice would you give to students who want to do research?

Believe in yourself; listen to your teachers and aim to surpass them with exuberant creativity.

Which object or image from your research best illustrates you?

Repair of a hydrometric station destroyed by a beaver, in a cavity in the Gardon gorges.