He received his Ph.D. in 2003 from the University Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris 6). He was then a postdoc reseacher at the University of Bologna. He has been involved in the European research projects COACH at the University of Paris 6, ADAPT and BISON at the University of Bologna. His research interests included adaptation of large-scale distributed applications, peer-to-peer systems, and the monitoring of complex systems. Before joining Google, Simon was Head of Development at Flexeye Technology.