Curriculum vitae

2012 - 2015 Doctor of Natural Sciences: Ecology & Evolution (Paris VI - Pierre & Marie Curie University)
Title of PhD thesis: “Trace metals: eco-physiological responses and role in melanin-based plumage coloration polymorphism maintenance in the feral pigeon” (Research realised at the Institute of Ecology & Environmental Sciences of Paris, France)

2010 - 2012 Master of Ecology, Biodiversity and Evolution (MNHN - The French National Museum of Natural History)
Title of Master thesis: “Role of predation in the evolution of aposematism and mimicry: influence of temperature and prey profitability” (Project realised at the Centre for Behaviour and Evolution, Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, UK)

2007 - 2010 Bachelor of Biology (Lyon I - Claude Bernard University)

• Apt to a position of associate professor in population biology and ecology (qualification delivered by the National Council of Universities in 2016 and renewed in 2023)
• Animal experimentation level 1 (certificate delivered by the GRETA Loiret in 2013)

Ongoing training:

Certificate of Teaching competences at the University of Innsbruck

So far, I accumulated almost eight years of post-doctoral experience in academia and worked in three different research institutes in France, Poland and Austria. 

2022- current  Elise Richter fellow, FWF grantee; Applied Animal Ecology research group, Institute of Zoology, University of Innsbruck (Innsbruck, Austria)

2019-2022 Lise Meitner fellow, FWF grantee; Applied Animal Ecology research group, Institute of Zoology, University of Innsbruck (Innsbruck, Austria); including 14 months of maternity leave

2016-2018 POLONEZ fellow, Marie Sklodowska-Curie cofund grantee; Wild Urban Evolution & Ecology Lab, Center of New Technologies, University of Warsaw (Warsaw, Poland)

2015-2016 Assistant lecturer in ecology and biostatistics; Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IEES-Paris), Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris, France)

In total, I published 18 peer-reviewed articles, including 15 articles as 1st author. Together with Marta Szulkin, I also wrote a book chapter for the Routledge Handbook of Urban Ecology. Click here to display the list of my publications.

Invited presentations:

2024 Animal physiological and behavioural response to metallic trace elements and bird feeding in urban landscapes. Behavioural & Evolutionary Summer School, Strasbourg, France.

2024 How animals adjust and adapt to urban environments. Evolunch seminar at the Institute of Science and Technology (ISTA), Vienna, Austria.

2021-2024 Animal adaptation to urban environments. Seminar of the Zoology Master Programme, University of Innsbruck, Austria.

2019 Metal pollution in the urban mosaic: their effect on bird populations. Warsaw Seminar in Ecology & Evolution, Center of New Technologies, Warsaw, Poland and Animal Ecology Seminar, University of Innsbruck, Austria.

2017 Life in the city: animal response to metal pollution. Workshop: Understanding ecology & evolution in the Anthropocene: from primeval forests to urban space, Mammal Research Institute, Białowieża, Poland.

2017 Could chemical pollution select for darker plumages in cities? Ecotoxicological and evolutionary consequences of metal exposure in the feral pigeon. Warsaw Seminar in Ecology & Evolution, Center of New Technologies, Warsaw, Poland and Neuchâtel University, Switzerland.

2015 Trace metals: ecophysiological responses and their influence on melanin-based plumage colouration polymorphism. Synthesis seminar of the Dens’Cité programme (funded by Sorbonne University), Paris, France.

2014 Could trace metal explain the higher frequency of darker pigeons in cities? SyEB seminary (Systematic, Evolution, Biodiversity), National Museum of Natural History, Paris, France.

Other presentations at national and international conferences and meetings:

2024 The evolutionary consequences of bird feeding within urban landscapes. Conference of the British Ornithological Union (BOU) on Urban Birds, Nothingham, UK.

2023 Changes in arthropod prey availability within the urban mosaic and its consequences on bird diet. Parids meeting, Montpellier, France.

2022 Food in the city: urban driven diet shift in great tits and blue tits. The International Society for Behavioral Ecology Conference, Stockholm, Sweden.

2022 Metal pollution explains reproduction impairments in urban birds. The European's Ornithologist Union, Online.

2018 Metal signature in great and blue tits along an urbanisation gradient. Parids meeting, Strasbourg, France.

2017 Life in the city: animal response to metal pollution. Evolutionary ecology meeting, Lund University, Sweden.

2017 What telomeres can tell about the experienced stress? A special focus on urban populations. The European Society of Evolutionary Biology Conference, Groningen, The Netherland.

2016 Trace metal effects on great and blue tit oxidative stress and telomere length in a gradient of urbanisation. International Conference on Understanding Diversity in Telomere dynamics, Edinburgh, UK.

2016 Trace metal effects on wild great tit oxidative stress and fitness in a gradient of urbanisation. Parids meeting, Montpellier, France.

2015 How may trace metals exert selective pressures on melanin-based colouration? The European Society of Evolutionary Biology Conference, Lausanne, Switzerland.

2014 Could trace metal explain the higher frequency of darker pigeons in cities? Petit Pois Déridé, Orsay, France.

2014 Does melanin-based plumage colouration is adaptive to trace metals polluted environments? The International Society for Behavioral Ecology Conference, New York, US.

2013 Adaptation to trace metals: an explanation to melanin-based coloration polymorphism in the feral pigeon. Colloque d’Ecophysiologie Animale (animal ecophysiology congress), Lyon, France.

Research project as Principal Investigator:

2024-current To feed or not to feed wild birds. Applied Animal Ecology group, Department of Zoology, University of Innsbruck. This work is funded by a Seed Grant from the Wild ANimal Initiative (amount of funding: 29.943 $). 

2022-current Evolutionary consequences of bird feeding. Applied Animal Ecology group, Department of Zoology, University of Innsbruck. This work is funded by an Elise Richter programme of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF): Elise Richter grant No. V 953-B (amount of funding: 395 204 €).

2019-2022 Food-driven movements of birds in urbanized landscapes. Applied Animal Ecology group, Department of Zoology, University of Innsbruck. This work is funded by a Lise Meitner programme of the Austrian Science Fund (FWF): Lise Meitner grant No. M2628-B25 (amount of funding: 169 260 €).

2016-2018 Trace metal effects on wild great tit and blue tit oxidative stress and fitness in a gradient of urbanisation. Wild Urban Evolution & Ecology Lab, Center of New Technologies, University of Warsaw (Warsaw, Poland). This work was funded by the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme of the European Union Marie Curie Actions and the National Science Centre - Poland: POLONEZ grant No. 2015/19/P/NZ8/02992 (amount of funding: 885 328 PLN ≈  210 792 €). 

2017-2018 Metal exposure in passerine birds inhabiting urban and rural habitats: differential effects on phenotypic and genetic variation. Wild Urban Evolution & Ecology Lab, Center of New Technologies, University of Warsaw (Warsaw, Poland). This work was funded by the the Center of New Technologies: DSM grant No. 501-D313-86-0117000-01 (amount of funding: 20 000 PLN ≈ 4 762€).

2015-2016 Effects of habitat characteristics and soil metal pollution on earthworm dispersal and habitat choice. Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IEES), Pierre and Marie University (Paris, France). This work was funded by the Pierre and Marie Curie University (amount of funding: 2 000€).

Research project as main participant:

2012-2015 Trace metals as a selective pressure on urban birds’ physiology and their melanin-based plumage colouration. Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IEES) Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris, France). This work was funded by the Ministère de l’Education Supérieure et de la Recherche, Pierre and Marie Curie University and by Sorbonne University Dens’Cité Programme (amount of funding: 80,000€).

Research project as a participant:

2013-2014 Effects of plumage bacteria on plumage quality. Institute of Ecology and Environmental Sciences (IEES), Pierre and Marie University (Paris, France). This work was supported by the local government Ile-de-France: Sustainable Development Network R2DS grant No.2012-11 (amount of funding: 27,600€).

Peer-reviewing - I have been reviewing more than 40 manuscripts for impactful journals in ecology such as Science of the Total Environment, Behavioral Ecology, Nature Ecology & Evolution, and Journal of Avian Biology. I also reviewed a book chapter for the now notorious book “Urban evolutionary biology”(Szulkin, Munshi-South & Charmantier 2020). In addition, I reviewed six research proposal for the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH, Hungary) and the Wild Animal Initiative (US).

Symposium organisation - Together with Josefa Bleu (IPHC, France), I am currently organizing a symposium on “Urban evolutionary ecotoxicology” for the Third Joint Congress on Evolutionary Biology, which will take place in Montreal in July 2024. Moreover, I organised a symposium on the “Consequences of citizens’ behaviour on wild animals’ behaviour” at the Behaviour 2023 conference that took place in Bielefeld (Germany). Within this symposium, we discussed how current eco-friendly behaviours influence wildlife, and fostered fruitful discussions about future research needed for advising on appropriate pro-environmental practices.  

During my PhD and my post-doctoral positions, I had the opportunity to supervise 6 field assistants, 14 masters’ and 16 undergraduate students.

To date, I have taught more than 330 hours at the Pierre & Marie Curie University (France) as well as at the University of Innsbruck (Austria). I teach in three main disciplines: ecology, biostatistics and evolution. I am/have been involved in lectures, seminars, practical courses and excursions for bachelor and master’s students. I am currently teaching two modules in the biology curriculum for bachelor’s students at the University of Innsbruck:  zoological excursions focussed on bird diversity in urban landscapes, and lectures and practical courses on ecology-oriented urban designs.

Languages:

• French: maternal language
• English: fluent 
• Portuguese: good understanding     

Computing: Pack Office, R, Gimp, Image J, GeneMapper, SpectraSuite    

Laboratory skills:

• Molecular analyses (DNA extraction from blood and faeces, single PCR, metabarcoding)
• Sample acid mineralization (blood, feathers, eggs, organs)
• Trace metals analysis (ICP-MS, Flame-AAS, Oven-AAS, ICP-OES)
• Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA)
• Colorimetric spectrometric analysis

Field skills:

Level 1 Diploma in Animal Experimentation (2013)

• birds: capture, livestock keeping, ringing, morphometric measurements, reproduction monitoring, blood sampling, faeces sampling, under-cutaneous injections, behavioural observations
• earthworms: capture, livestock keeping, species identification, morphometric measurements, behavioural observations

You can also have an overview of my achievements on ORCID and Web of Science.