Samuel Bates holds a PhD in Economics (2006) from the University of the French West Indies and Guiana, and was awarded the Banque de France Foundation Thesis Prize for Research in Monetary and Banking Economics (2007). Throughout his career as a lecturer at Paris-Dauphine University (2007-2018), his Habilitation to Supervise Research (HDR) at the University of Bordeaux (2017), and his professorship at the University of Angers (2018-2022), he has developed an interdisciplinary approach at the intersection of life sciences, social sciences, and natural sciences.

His research focuses particularly on the vulnerability, resilience, and sustainability of ecological and social systems, leading him to work across several disciplines: Ecological Economics, Agricultural and Environmental Economics, Development Economics, Monetary Economics, and Tourism Economics.

The construction of indicators, econometrics and quantitative methods as well as the mathematical theory of viability constitute its methodological anchors to support decision-making and governance of complex human systems (economic system) and/or human-nature interactions (ecological system) subject to uncertainty.