Pascale Senellart is director of research at the CNRS nanoscience and nanotechnology center. CNRS - Université Paris-Saclay.
Her research lies at the interface between solid-state physics, quantum optics and nanotechnologies. She studies semiconductor quantum dots, nano-objects composed of thousands of atoms that behave as a single atom and can therefore emit photons one by one. In 2017, she co-founded the startup Quandela, which develops and markets unique photon sources to support the development of quantum technologies. Today, Quandela is developing the first light-based quantum computers.

Pascale Senellart joined the CNRS in 2002, was appointed Director of Research in 2011 and has been a lecturer at the École Polytechnique since 2014, where she teaches quantum mechanics. In 2020, she helped set up a quantum technology training program on the Saclay campus. Today, she devotes 30 % of her time to scientific consulting at Quandela. Her work has been rewarded with the CNRS silver medal (2014), the Mergier-Bourdeix grand prize from the Académie des Sciences (2021), and the Jean-Ricard grand prize from the Société française de physique (2023).

She was elected to the Académie des Sciences in 2022 and to the Académie des Technologies in 2024. She has been a member of the Presidential Council for Science since 2023.