Laurent Montesi has been an Assistant Professor in the department of Geology at the University of Maryland, College Park, since the summer of 2007. He is French, and studied for the equivalent of BS and MS in Physics first in the University of Nancy I, and then in a consortium of universities around Paris, based at the Ecole Normale Superieure, culminating in a DEA in Geodynamics and Physics of the Earth. Then, he came to MIT to study for a Ph.D. under the guidance of Maria Zuber, tackling experimental rock mechanics, planetary sciences, and geodynamics. He spent the next 6 years at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, first as a postdoc with Greg Hirth and Peter Kelemen, then as Assistant and Associate Scientist.

His scientific interests focus on the development and structure of plate boundaries. Active projects include: melting and melt extraction at ultraslow mid-ocean ridge; 3D mantle flow at subduction zones; development of shear zones; and utilizing postseismic deformation to constrain shear zone rheology.