Welcome to my personal website !

My name is Ruben Chenevat, I am a third (and final) year PhD student in Applied Mathematics at UMR MISTEA - INRAE, Université de Montpellier (France), under the supervision of Alain Rapaport (MISTEA), Sébastien Roux (MISTEA) and Bruno Cheviron (UMR G-EAU).

Research interests

I am interested in how mathematics can contribute to other fields of scientific research, especially natural sciences (physics, biology) and their applications such as environment, health, energy… In other words, I aspire to tackle questions from these applied topics, that may be transposed into mathematical formalism, and for which one can seek to develop mathematical theory leading to scientific advances.

Current works

My thesis focuses on crop irrigation decision support tools based on the optimization of analytical and numerical models, in a context of climate change and preservation of water resources. The motivation is to provide a real-time decision, integrating seasonal management constraints and weather uncertainties. I consider a double modeling approach that relies on investigating a mathematical model on which I develop results from optimal control theory, and interacting with the numerical model Optirrig for operational purposes.

I am currently working on the elaboration of efficient irrigation strategies taking into account both long term expected rainfall sequences and short term weather forecast. This project recquires using average cost control problems and adaptive methods to handle the non-deterministic behaviour.