Elsa Cortijo began her career in 1997, at the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences (LSCE – CEA/CNRS/Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines), working on climate mechanisms in the glacial and interglacial periods.
Her research focuses on two main areas: the study of mechanisms underlying millennial-scale climate variability in the glacial period and the study of climate mechanisms for coming out of an interglacial period.
In 2002, Elsa Cortijo became head of a research team at LSCE and, in 2006, she became Assistant Director of the Laboratory.
She carries out her research as part of many French, European and international scientific programs. She has written and co-written over 130 papers and presentations at French and international conferences. Throughout her career, Elsa Cortijo has also been involved in teaching and supervision work. She is also sits on a number of management and steering committees, as well as being a member of working groups for various research bodies and administrations.
She has worked as Director of the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences since 2014.
Elsa Cortijo holds a PhD and has authorization to supervise research at the Université Paris-Sud Orsay. She is a Research Director at CNRS.