Henri Anciaux was born in Rouen, France. In 2001 he got his PhD from Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan, France, under the supervision of Frédéric Hélein.
He has lived and worked in Pisa (Italy), Granada (Spain), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Berlin (Germany) and Tralee (Ireland). Since 2011 he is associate Professor at University of São Paulo, Brazil. His research is focused on submanifold theory in pseudo-Riemannian manifolds.