After obtaining a doctoral degree in Demography at the University of Louvain, I completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles, and occupied a postdoctoral position at the Population Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania. My main achievements have taken place in the ongoing project “Global Age Patterns of Under-5 mortality,” funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH). Within this project, I have contributed to the development of the Under-5 Mortality Database of which I am the main curator.
My research focuses on the measurement, the modelling, and the understanding of the global patterns of human mortality at early ages. I have developed models to estimate mortality below age 5 years and to answer substantive questions about the past and the future trends at these ages. My current research focuses on fetal and neonatal mortality in both high- and middle/low-income countries. My aim is to understand the role that fetal growth restriction plays in generating excess mortality during the late fetal and neonatal periods, and to contribute to the methodological innovations in the measurement of mortality at these ages. My research appears in articles published in Demography, Demographic Research, and The Lancet Global Health, among others.