Le Gal was first interested in pattern formation through his experimental work on Rayleigh-Bénard convection during his PhD and then was especially interested in the formation and the interaction of Von Karman wakes and also in the instabilities of the Ekman boundary layer over rotating disks. He has published more than 80 research articles in fluid mechanics, which are cited more than 2000 times. He is currently involved in laboratory experiments on stratified and rotating flows: strato-rotational instability, internal wave generation, wave breaking, vortex formation. All of these flows have applications in geo and astrophysics. Le Gal was awarded the Grand Prix EADS of the French Academy of Sciences (Paris) "Science and Engineering" in 2012 and was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2013. These last 10 years, he has developed several art-science projects in collaboration with artist J. Tejerina-Risso. In the projects have been presented in museums, galleries, and exhibitions. Recently, this collaboration has led to explore the forms and dynamics of water waves. These art pieces draw their inspiration sources from both the scientific and artistic worlds and live exactly at the point of convergence of science and art requirements.