After a six month internship, Thibaut Juillard started his PhD in our group on the project “Species invasiveness in the Anthropocene: deciphering the physiological advantage of an invasive exotic species (the windmill palm) over native species in a hotter and drier future” in September. We wish you a very good start as a PhD student at PERL!
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In September, Janisse Deluigi also joined our group as an intern for four months in the Project “Physiological mechanisms driving the high invasiveness of T. fortunei in the forests of southern Switzerland”.
Welcome to the group, Janisse!
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A warm welcome to Alex Tuñas, who started as a research technician at PERL in August. Alex studied Biology at the University of Santiago de Compostela and continued his studies at Imperial College London and Arizona State University, working then as an assistant scientist in the Environmental Chemistry Lab at EPFL before joining us.
In our group, Alex will be in charge of multiple tasks, such as managing the lab, assisting with fieldwork and labwork, troubleshooting technical problems, or helping with data analyses.
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Welcome to Alice Gauthey, who started as a PostDoc in the group in August. Alice got her PhD in plant hydraulics at Western Sydney University, in Australia, where she looked at the effects of drought and hydraulic failure on forest mortality and recovery, with a particular focus on the use of non-invasive imaging techniques (e.g. micro-computated tomography).
At PERL, she will work on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) thermal imagery that, with other ecophysiological measurements, will help improve our understanding of canopy temperature regulation and gas exchange under extreme climate events (i.e. drought, heat waves…). We’re looking forward to working with you and have a good start!
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Finally, Johanna Deblond joined our group in September for three months in order to prepare her bachelor thesis about tree-related microhabitats in open areas. Johanna is student at the “Haute Ecole de la Province de Liège” in Belgium. A very warm welcome to Johanna!