Born and raised in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, he accomplished his studies in biology at the University of Lausanne (bachelor, master and doctoral degrees), after which he was a research associate at the Laboratory of Entomology of the University Paul-Sabatier (in Toulouse, France), a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Lausanne, a post-doctoral research associate at the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, and again a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Lausanne.