François-Nicolas is a geographer, with interests in spatial hydrology, forest ecology, and geomatics. He arrived in Canada in 2013 to start his PhD in forest management at the University of Alberta. His PhD thesis focused on wildfire risks to water security, a topic that he kept working on during his post-doc with Global Water Futures. François-Nicolas spent three years with the Canadian Forest Service where he worked as a wildfire research scientist analyzing post-fire risks to drinking water supply. He also worked for two years as a habitat analyst for the Pacific Salmon Foundation. He is now the provincial forest hydrologist for the Government of Alberta.

François lives in Edmonton on Treaty 6 Territory and within the Métis homelands and Métis Nation of Alberta Region 4.