Nicolas Balacheff is Directeur de Recherche (senior scientist) at CNRS, the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique. He also serves as Director of the Leibniz Laboratory in Grenoble, France, a multidisciplinary laboratory in computer science and discrete mathematics, with 100 researchers. In addition, he is Co-Director of the Rhône-Alpes Chapter of Cognitive Science, Chair of the CNRS network on educational technology, and scientific manager of Kaleidoscope, the European Network of Excellence on technology-enhanced learning.
Nicolas achieved the degrees in mathematiques in 1970, and computer science in 1974. From 1972 to 1987, he was an Assistant Professor at INPG-ENSIMAG. Since 1975, his main research domain has been mathematics education, with a special emphasis on the learning of proof, and questions related to the modeling of students conceptions.
In 1988 Nicolas began to focus on the design of learning environments, in relation to student knowledge modeling and teacher-machine cooperations, as Associate Professor at the Université de Grenoble and the Directeur de Recherche at IRPEACS in Ecully. During this time he was a member of the scientific committee of the NATO special programme on "Advanced Educational Technology," serving as Chairman in 1992.
In 1992 Nicolas joined the Laboratory LSD2, and the Laboratory Leibniz as chair of the research team in computer-based environments and human learning. He has been Director of Leibniz-IMAG since 2000. His current project, Baghera, is devoted to the design and implementation of a multi-agent environment for the teaching and learning of mathematics involving learners, teachers and artificial agents. He has also worked on the microworld project Cabri-géomètre and an experimental platform for distant learning in the Academic Hospital of Grenoble.
Nicolas has had more than 100 publications since 1975, and is on the editorial boards of many journals, including the International Journal of Computers for Mathematics Learning, and the International Journal for Mathematics Learning and Thinking. He has been on various programme committees at a national and an international level, such as "Artificial Intelligence and Education". He also has expertise for the European Commission, for the Italian CNR, Canadian FONDCAR and NSF projects.