Didier Sornette obtained his PhD from the University of Nice in Physical Sciences (1985) and went on to become a post-doctoral student at the famous College de France, in the Condensed Matter Laboratory of Prof. P.G. de Gennes (Nobel prize in Physics 1991).
He has been a visiting professor in Australia, France, the US and China, before taking on the chair of Entrepreneurial Risks at ETH-Zurich in 2006, where he is also Professor of Physics and of Geophysics. He is the Director of the Financial Crisis Observatory (since 2008) and Founding member of the Risk Center at ETH Zurich (2011).