Maxime Linard began his studies with a Bachelor's degree in Animal Physiology and Neuroscience at the University of Montpellier. Deeply interested in animal cognition—particularly human cognition—he quickly became convinced that an interdisciplinary approach was essential in this field.
He therefore decided to enroll in the Cogmaster program, a dual Master’s degree in Science, Technology, and Health as well as in the Humanities and Social Sciences, jointly offered by the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, Université de Paris, and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.
During his three years in the program, he studied cognitive psychology, linguistics, modeling, anthropology, ecology, philosophy, cognitive engineering (particularly in the field of education), and, of course, neuroscience. Maxime focused his work on the themes of memory, sleep, and dreams, and sought to explore different levels of analysis in cognitive neuroscience through four extended research internships.
He completed an internship in psychophysics at the Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition Center on human visual perception; another in integrated cognitive neuroscience in animals at the Collège de France, studying memory processes during sleep in rodents; a third in human cognitive neuroscience at the Paris Brain Institute, investigating the effects of ketamine on local sleep; and finally, an internship in integrated human neuroscience at the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory in Lyon, examining the impact of epilepsy on dreaming.
After reading the IPCC report, Maxime became aware of the urgency of the climate crisis and wished to contribute to education on ecological and social transition issues. For two years, he worked with the Campus de la Transition, providing training programs for university students.
Maxime ultimately chose to pursue a Ph.D. on a topic at the intersection of his interest in cognitive neuroscience and his concern for preserving life. He joined the Pharmacochemistry of Synaptic Transmission team, where he is investigating the impact of pesticides on bee neurodevelopment and cognition at the molecular, anatomical, and behavioral levels.