Hi Fathi, and thank you for agreeing to do this. We generally start with your childhood. Also, at what point, if you can recall, did you gravitate toward an interest in the science you have pursued your career?
Well, as you can hear, Sara and I are both from Europe and indeed yes, I was born and raised in France but if you can tell, my name is not French at all. My ethnic background is North African, my parents are from Tunisia. Or a soft T with the h? Is it Fati or Fathi? Even more so when I was in trouble!
So yes, I can go back a little bit in time and give you a sense of my origins. When they arrived in France there were nine and I have one uncle who was born in France. My father came a little bit later, I think with one or two of his brothers. North Africa used to be either a French territory or a French colony so there are still very strong ties to France, based on economics and politics.
After the second world war, there was a big demand for labor and many people from North Africa moved to France. It is in the province of Champagne, in the northeast of France.
My hometown is between Reims, which is sort of the capital of Champagne, and Nancy which is another city in a different province. Next to it is another province, Lorraine, of which Nancy is one of the major cities. So Champagne is limitrophe to Belgium in the north, the southern part is north of Burgundy, one of the wine regions, and the western side is maybe an hour and a half from Paris.
