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In: Former Fellows, Student Grants

My name is Clio Maridakis. I completed my PhD in December 2025 at the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, within the Institut de Systématique, Évolution, Biodiversité (ISYEB), under the supervision of Line Le Gall and Florence Rousseau. My research focuses on the diversity and phylogeny of coralline algae (Corallinophycidae), with a particular interest in species delimitation, the taxonomic revision of the genus Jania, and the contribution of genomics to understanding phylogenetic relationships within this group. During my PhD, I worked with the world’s largest collection of coralline algae, held in the herbarium of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, to explore the diversity of these calcified red algae,Read More →

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In: Former Fellows, Student Grants

My name is Coralie Rousseau and I am currently an Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow, working closely with Dr Cathy Pfister (Ecology and Evolution department) and Dr Claire Donnat (Statistics department) at the University of Chicago. I received my Ph.D in microbiology (March 2025), supervised by Dr Simon Dittami and Dr Catherine Leblanc, at the Biological Station of Roscoff (Brittany, France) by studying ecological and functional roles of the microbial communities associated with the brown seaweed Ascophyllum nodosum. Seaweeds harbor a rich microbial community, including bacteria, archaea, viruses, fungi, and other eukaryotes on their surfaces and within their tissues. The associationRead More →

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In: Former Fellows

I am a PhD student (currently in my second year) at the University of Caen Normandy, based at Cnam-Intechmer in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin. I am particularly interested in the diversity of algae and the communities they form on the foreshore. My thesis work focuses mainly on intertidal macroalgae communities in Normandy. The aim of my thesis is to develop new tools for understanding these intertidal macroalgae communities at various scales. To this end, a range of techniques are used, from drones for acquiring aerial images of the site to PAM for acquiring data at the individual level. Ultimately, this project aims to improve our understanding of theRead More →

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In: Former Fellows

My name is Lou Patron and I am a second-year PhD student at the GENALG laboratory at Ifremer in Nantes. My research focuses on the biotic interactions between the ichthyotoxic microalga Prymnesium parvum and its associated bacteria. This microalga is known for its massive blooms and its ability to produce toxins, causing major disturbances in aquatic ecosystems, particularly through the mass mortality of fish and other marine organisms. My thesis project aims to explore the influence of these interactions on algae growth and toxin production. An essential part of my project involves identifying the bacteria present in the P. parvum microbiome. To do this, IRead More →

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In: Former Fellows

My name is Victor Pochic and I am a PhD student in marine biology at the University of Nantes and Ifremer. While studying for my bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences at the University of Nantes, I did an internship with Pierre Gernez at the ISOMer laboratory, where I worked on microalgal blooms. It was during this internship that I developed a passion for strange creatures called dinoflagellates. These are rather unusual organisms, classified as microalgae, which display astonishing diversity: some are toxic, others are bioluminescent, and still others must steal chloroplasts from their prey in order to photosynthesize. After completing a master’s degree in marineRead More →