PLENARY SPEAKER - ALEXANDRE LOCQUET

Nondestructive THz multispectral imaging is exploited to investigate inscriptions under corrosion on a XVI th century lead funerary cross from Remiremont in Lorraine, France. The technique takes advantage of the penetration ability of THz radiation and of the broad spectrum of THz pulses. The multispectral images obtained from various frequency bands are fed into a post-processing chain for image restoration and enhancement, revealing obscured inscriptions that might have otherwise been lost. The approach opens up new perspectives for multi-resolution analysis at THz frequencies as a technique in archaeometry.

Alexandre Locquet, received the engineering degree from the Faculté Polytechnique de Mons (Belgium), in 2000, the doctorat en sciences de l’ingénieur from the Université de Franche-Comté (France), in 2004, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA, in 2005. He is a CNRS Research Scientist, an Instructor at Georgia Tech Lorraine, the European campus of Georgia Tech and an adjunct Professor with Georgia Tech’s School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He has a broad research interests including nondestructive evaluation and testing based on THz waves as well as the nonlinear dynamics of optical and electronic systems and their applications to information processing and neuro-inspired computing. In the field of THz NDE, Alexandre has contributed to the implementation of signal processing techniques that have improved the axial resolution and dynamic range of THz images. In particular, one of these techniques has proven successful in revealing the stratigraphy of a XVIIth century easel painting by il Sassoferrato. Alexandre has authored or coauthored more than 60 journal publications. He is a Member of IEEE Eta kappa Nu, the Photonics Society of IEEE, and the Optical Society of America.