Danièle Blanc Pélissier obtained a PhD in Solid State Physics from Université Joseph Fourier in Grenoble in 1983 in the field of amorphous silicon solar cells and an “Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches” from Université Jean Monnet in Saint-Etienne in 1998. She spent 6 years as a Research Associate at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh where she worked on various fields related to material science. Since 1991, she is a research scientist with French CNRS. She spent 15 years at Université de Saint-Etienne working in the field of optical thin films, non linear optics and diffractive optics. After a sabbatical year at McGill University, Montreal in 1999, she concentrated on the application of hybrid sol-gel material to micro-optics. She joined the Photovoltaics Group at Institut des Nanotechnologies de Lyon (INL) in January 2008 to develop technologies (Atomic Layer Deposition, laser processing) and characterization techniques for silicon solar cells.