Syrielle Montariol, a CNRS research fellow, recently joined the MLIA team at ISIR to continue her research activities in natural language processing.
We’d like to know a little more about you. Tell us about your background.
Syrielle Montariol: “I obtained my PhD in Natural Language Processing (NLP) at Paris-Saclay University in 2021, with a thesis on modeling the evolution of natural language using neural models. I have completed various postdoctoral fellowships and research stays at the National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo, INRIA Paris (Almanach team), the Josef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, and the NLP labs at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. at the National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo, INRIA Paris (Almanach team), the Josef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, and the NLP labs at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and the University of California, Berkeley. I joined the MLIA team at ISIR as a CNRS research fellow in February 2026.”
Quel est ton domaine de recherche ?
S.M.: “In the field of natural language processing, I work primarily on three complementary areas: (1) multimodal models, capable of understanding and generating images and videos in conjunction with text; (2) multilingual models, in order to better represent under-resourced languages and cultural diversity; (3) machine reasoning, by training models to solve complex problems, such as mathematical, causal, or visual reasoning.”
Sur quoi travailles-tu en ce moment ? Parle-nous un peu de la recherche que tu comptes mener à l’ISIR.
S.M.: “At ISIR, my main project aims to improve the perception, reasoning, and planning capabilities of multimodal language models. The goal is to create models capable of identifying key elements in images or videos in a structured way, and to reason about this information to generate relevant responses and plan complex tasks in a robust manner. This project is part of a collaborative effort, with applications in robotics, environmental remote sensing, and medical imaging.”
Qu’est-ce qui te plaît dans ton métier ?
S.M.: “There are few professions that offer such absolute freedom to choose what, with whom, and how I work. Being a researcher allows me to immerse myself every day in questions that fascinate me and to constantly learn new things. Above all, the opportunity to collaborate with passionate and talented people from around the world is a constant source of motivation and inspiration. Each of my collaborations has allowed me to learn and grow as a researcher.”
Contact: Syrielle Montariol, CNRS research fellow
Published on 27/02/2026
