Philippe Baptiste has been appointed senior vice president of scientific development at Total, effective Feb. 1, the company said in a news release.

Baptiste began his career at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in 1999. He then joined IBM's research team in New York, where he stayed from 2000 to 2001, and lectured at Ecole Polytechnique in France, from 2002 until 2011, according to the release.

He became director of the LIX computer science laboratory (CNRS/Ecole Polytechnique) in 2008 and was appointed director of the CNRS Institute for Information Sciences and Technology in 2010. In 2013, he became head of research and innovation strategy at the French Ministry of Research and Higher Education, and in June 2014 he was appointed Chief Research Officer at the CNRS.

According to the release, Baptiste has published a number of books and several hundred papers and articles, of which 40 have appeared in international journals. He has led many R&D projects with software developers and industry-leading manufacturers.

Baptiste holds a degree in civil engineering from Ecole des Mines de Nancy and a doctorate in computer science from Université de Technologie de Compiègne, the release said.