David A. NICOLAS
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Photo of David A. NICOLAS

CNRS researcher at Institut Jean Nicod (since 2001)
• Affiliations: Institut Jean Nicod, Département d'études cognitives, ENS, PSL, EHESS, CNRS.
• Address: Institut Jean Nicod - École Normale Supérieure - 29, rue d'Ulm - 75230 Paris cedex 05 - France.
• Email: dnicolas AT gmx DOT net - pgp key: 0x2baaed987aecc9b6.

Head of the program New Ideas in Linguistics at École Normale Supérieure (2014-2020)
Head of the research team Semantics, data and models (now called Language, thought and behavior) at Institut Jean Nicod (2015-2018).
Elected member of the laboratory council of Institut Jean Nicod since 2023.

Invited researcher at University of Birmingham from February to April 2017.
Visiting researcher at MIT from September to December 2014.

Scientific projects (organization and participation)
• 2017: University of Birmingham (IAS): project Plurals and mereology of Salvatore Florio & David Nicolas.
• 2010-2015: participation to IUF project Determiners and Inferences of Francis Corblin.
• 2008-2011: participation to ANR project Genericity, Interpretation and Uses of Alda Mari.
• 2008-2011: participation to ANR project Cognitive Origins of Vagueness of Paul Egré.
• 2002-2010: organization and participation to research group Sémantique & Modélisation (GDR 2521) of Francis Corblin.
• 2005-2006: research seminar on properties, semantics and ontology (with Alda Mari).
• 2004-2005: research seminar on the semantics of gradable expressions.
• 1999-2001: participation to Cognitique project The format of spatial representations of Roberto Casati & Jérôme Dokic.
• 1994-1997: participation to NSERCC project Category-theoretic study of cognition of Brendan Gillon, John Macnamara, Mikkai Makkai & Gonzalo Reyes.

Conferences and summer schools (organization)
• 2023-12: conference 15th Syntax and Semantics Conference in Paris (with Marta Abrusan & Carlo Geraci), Paris, France.
• 2016-09: conference New Ideas in Semantics and Modeling 2016 (with Claire Beyssade & Alda Mari), Paris, France.
• 2009-09: conference Absolute Generality (with Øystein Linnebo), Paris, France.
• 2009-09: International Conference on Tense, Aspect and Modality - Chronos 2009 (with Bridget Copley, Patrick Caudal, Chris Kennedy, Brenda Laca & Gerhard Schaden), Paris, France.
• 2009-05: conference Genericity (with Claire Beyssade & Alda Mari), Paris, France.
• 2007-10: conference Semantics Beyond Set Theory (with Alda Mari), Paris, France.
• 2007-06: conference New Advances on Plurality (with Alda Mari), Paris, France.
• 2006-03: conference Journées de Sémantique et Modélisation 2006 (with Christian Rétoré), Bordeaux, France.
• 2005-03: conference Journées de Sémantique et Modélisation 2005 (with Lucia Tovena), Paris, France.
• 2004-06: summer school on Reference to Objects (with Roberto Casati), Oléron, France.

Teaching
• Since 2022: natural language ontology: sums, events, and degrees (with Jeremy Kuhn), ENS, Paris, France.
• 2020-2021: counting and measuring across languages and domains (with Jeremy Kuhn), ENS, Paris, France.
• 2016-2019: master's course in natural language semantics (with Alda Mari), EHESS, Paris, France.
• 2017-07: speaking of things and stuff (with Salvatore Florio), ESSLLI 2017, Toulouse, France.
• 2009-2015: master's course in natural language semantics (with Patrick Caudal & Alda Mari), Paris 4 University, France.
• 2008-04: course on the semantics of plurals and mass nouns, during the Journées de Sémantique et Modélisation 2008, Toulouse, France.
• 2006-03: course on the semantics of plurals during the Journées de Sémantique et Modélisation 2006, Bordeaux, France.
• 2000-2001: introduction to the morphology and the history of English, and introduction to the study of language, Department of Linguistics, University of California at Los Angeles, USA.
• 1999-2000: introductory courses to phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics, University of Valenciennes, France.
• 1994-1997: teaching assistant for the courses History of psychology, Modern psychological theories, Psychology of perception and Psychology of deafness, Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

Diplomas
• 2015: Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches in Cognitive Science from École Normale Supérieure, Paris, France. Jury: Francis Corblin (Linguistics, Paris 4, IJN), Jenny Doetjes (Linguistics, Leiden), Brendan Gillon (Linguistics, McGill), Brenda Laca (Linguistics, Paris 8) & Agustin Rayo (Philosophy, MIT).
• 1999: Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France. Jury: Pierre Cadiot (Linguistics, Paris 8), Daniel Andler (thesis director, Philosophy, Paris 3), Richard Carter (Linguistics, Paris 8 ), Brendan Gillon (Linguistics, McGill) & Georges Kleiber (Linguistics, Strasbourg 2). I have done part of my thesis in co-tutelle between the École Polytechnique in France and McGill in Canada (accomplishing the first three years of the Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology at McGill), and I have collaborated with John Macnamara, Brendan Gillon, Albert Bregman & Yuriko Oshima-Takane in McGill, Keith Niall in the DCIEM (Defence and Civil Institute of Environmental Medicine) and Gonzalo Reyes in University of Montreal.
• 1994: Master's in Cognitive Science from École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France.
• 1993: Diploma of Engineer from École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France.
• 1988: Baccalauréat scientifique, Paris, France.

Training periods
• 2017-07: European Summer School on Logic, Language and Information, Toulouse, France.
• 2011-06: Meaning, Context, and Implicit Content (CNRS, European Science Fondation), Cerisy, France.
• 2009-07: European Summer School on Logic, Language and Information, Bordeaux, France.
• 2005-09: summer school Esprit, Science, Métaphysique (CNRS, European Science Fondation), Ramatuelle, France.
• 2002-08: European Summer School on Logic, Language and Information, Trento, Italy.
• 2000-08: European Summer School on Logic, Language and Information, Birmingham, England.
• 1993 (April-June): scientific practicum in Cognitive Psychology, McGill, Montreal, Canada.
• 1991-09: organizing activities for elderly people in the German Canadian Care Home, Vancouver, Canada.

Languages
• French: maternal tongue.
• English: fluently read, spoken and written.
• German, Korean, Latin, Mandarin Chinese: elementary proficiency.

Personal interests
• Game of baduk / (i)go / weichi.
• Hiking.
• Photography.
• Singing.

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