Elsa Bourguignon trained both as an architectural conservator and a conservation scientist. She received an M.Sc. in Historic Preservation with a concentration in building and material conservation from the University of Pennsylvania and a Ph.D. in Materials Science from the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees, France. She has worked both in the field, notably as an associate project specialist at the Getty Conservation Institute, and in the laboratory, more recently managing a European research project on new inorganic consolidants for the Laboratoire de Recherche des Monuments Historiques, France.