Christophe Pottier

Born in Mayenne, 1966
Architect at EFEO from 1992 to 1999, 
EFEO Member since 1999

Christophe Pottier is an Associate Professor at the Ecole Française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO). 

After his first experiences in India and in Thailand, at the Prasat Phanom Wan under the supervision of Pierre Pichard in collaboration with the Fine Arts Department, he directed the EFEO center in Siem Reap – Angkor (Cambodia) from its reopening in 1992 until 2009. After a sabbatical at the University of Sydney, he has been posted in 2012 head of the EFEO research centre in Bangkok at the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre. He returned in France in 2017 and was appointed Director of Studies at the EFEO in March 2018.

He gained his architect’s degree in 1990 and directed restoration and conservation works at Angkor, in particular at the Royal Terraces in the centre of Angkor Thom. In parallel, he initiated various archaeological researches on ancient architecture, urbanism and mapping. His 1999 PhD thesis in history and archaeology (Sorbonne University, Paris III)fundamentally transformed the understanding of the residential and social organisation of Angkor by mapping fields and house mounds and redefined the debate about urban studies and water management. 

Since 2000, he is director of Cambodian-French Archaeological Mission on the Angkor Region (Mafkata), and a co-director of the Greater Angkor Project at the University of Sydney. 

He authored over sixty book chapters and scientific papers, and contributed to various conferences and exhibitions.