After a degree in Physics and Russian at the University of Sussex (UK), Araceli Lopez-Martens did a first year of doctoral studies by preparing the DEA "Champs Particules Matière" at the University of Paris Sud and then a PhD in nuclear physics at the CSNSM on the study of high spin phenomena and in particular on nuclear superdeformation. After a postdoctoral contract at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen (Denmark), Araceli started his career at the IReS (now IPHC) in Strasbourg and worked on the manifestations of chaos in nuclei with the European gamma ray detector Euroball. After the dismantling of Euroball in 2003 and back to the CSNSM, she developed gamma tracking algorithms for the Advanced GAmma-ray Tracking Array (AGATA) and became interested in the structure and dynamics of superheavy nuclei, which she now studies mainly at the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions (Russia), but also at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland) and soon at GANIL with the Super Separator Spectrometer (S3). Araceli is currently a research director at the CNRS Irène Joliot Curie Laboratory of Physics of the 2 Infinites in Orsay.