News
Secretary-elect of the Royal Belgian Zoological Society
14 May 2025
I am happy to share that I was elected secretary of the Royal Belgian Zoological Society! I will be following up Prof. Gilles Lepoint from the University of Liège, who has served the RBZS wonderfully in this role for many years—big shoes to fill… The newly elected president of the RBZS, Prof. Steven Van Belleghem from KU Leuven will follow up Prof. Frédéric Silvestre from the University of Namur, who has led the Society for two brilliant terms.
It’s exciting to soon continue the great work, and I look forward to working closely with Steven, the Board, and all the members and partners of the Society!
The LAB is hiring a postdoctoral researcher!
01 May 2025
The LAB is hiring a postdoctoral researcher as part of the Interreg ORION project, which uses a multidisciplinary, cross-border approach to diagnose and predict the quality of aquatic environments in the Meuse River basin. The postdoctoral researcher will be responsible for Work Package 4 of the project, assessing physiological responses—in the lab and in the field—to pollution in sentinel fish species, particularly Atlantic salmon.
Nicole is visiting Sweden
27 April 2025
Nicole Goede is visiting the labs of Tomas Brodin and Michael Bertram at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences in Umeå! Expanding her horizon, she’s working together with Daniel Cerveny and other friends to look into damselfly larvae and how they behave when the world around them changes—exciting stuff!
Support from ARES-CCD
25 April 2025
Fantastic news—Yusuph Kafula from Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere University of Agriculture and Technology in Tanzania was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship by ARES-CDD (Académie de Recherche et d’Enseignement Supérieur – Commission du Développement Durable).
We’re very grateful for this support and can’t wait to welcome Yusuph into our team!
Our salmon study is migrating around the world
18 April 2025
It’s fantastic to see how much our salmon migration study has been picked up by major news outlets all around the world!
It has now also been covered on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert! Watch it here (coverage starts at 2:45).
Seminar at UC-Louvain
18 April 2025
Today, I visited Prof. Melissa Page of UC-Louvain and talked about fish behaviour in medicated habitats at the Louvain Institute of Biomolecular Science and Technology. I had a lovely time connecting with people over there!
New intern
14 April 2025
Our team is happy to welcome Amélie Pujol, coming from Université de Toulon (France) for an internship during the coming months! She will be working with Noémie Buratto, looking into the growth of the endosymbiotic dinoflagellates of the upside-down jellyfish!
New paper in Science
10 April 2025
Our latest research is out in Science Magazine!
We show how pharmaceutical pollution can disrupt the river-to-sea migration of Atlantic salmon—highlighting just how far-reaching the effects of human medicines can be on aquatic life.
You can read the article here or read about it on the Newsroom of UNamur!
Support from the Schlumberger Foundation
10 April 2025
Wonderful news—Theresia Kimario was awarded a ‘Faculty for the Future’ PhD fellowship by the Schlumberger Foundation! We’re very grateful for this support and are super happy to have Theresia in our team!
We're at the Biology@100 conference in Liverpool
24-27 March 2025
The LAB is represented at the Biology@100 conference, organised by the Company of Biologists!
We thank COST Action ‘OneHealthdrugs’ for their generous support to attend this conference. You can read more about it here!
Best poster award from the Fonds Adrien Bauchau
13 February 2025
Fantastic work by Noémie Buratto, who presented her work on upside-down jellyfish during the Women and Girls in Science conference in Namur and was awarded the jury award for best poster by the Fonds Adrien Bauchau!
Two new articles in Proceedings B
09 February 2025
The work of many hands, now finally published! Read all about membership fees and preprints in ecology & evolution here 🙂
Lagisz, M. et al. 2025. Priced out of belonging? Insufficient concessions on membership fees across international societies in ecology and evolution. Proc. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci. 292, 20241430. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.1430
Noble, D.W.A. et al. 2025. The promise of community-driven preprints in ecology and evolution. Proc. R. Soc. Lond., B, Biol. Sci. 292, 20241487. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.1487
New intern
28 January 2025
Our team is happy to welcome Manon Verneuil, coming from Le Mans University (France) for an internship during the coming months! She will focus on the behavioural responses of small freshwater crustaceans to environmental pollutants!
Attending ZOOLOGY 2024
12-13 December 2024
Our team attended the Benelux Zoology Congress (Zoology2024) in Mons, Belgium!
Noémie Buratto, Nicole Goede, and Nichole Donough showcased their PhD research with a poster presentation. It was a fantastic opportunity to share our work and connect with fellow zoologists from across the region.
Support from the Royal Belgian Zoological Society
09 December 2024
The Royal Belgian Zoological Society generously supports our very own Noémie Buratto’s upcoming fieldwork in Florida, where she will research the upside-down jellyfish and its’ responses to pollution! Thanks RBZS, and congratulations, Noémie!
Kickoff meeting of interreg project "ORION"
11 December 2024
We had the pleasure of attending the kickoff meeting for the ORION project, an exciting Interreg initiative that brings together universities and stakeholders across Flanders, Wallonia, and France to tackle cross-border water management challenges. The project focuses on characterising microbiological and ecotoxicological pressures in transboundary aquatic ecosystems, particularly in the Meuse River, to improve resilience and adaptation strategies.
The Laboratory of Adaptive Biodynamics, together with Prof. Patrick Kestemont, is excited to represent the University of Namur and contribute to this multidisciplinary collaboration.
Stay tuned for updates on our progress!
brand-new "News" page
9 December 2024
Our website finally has a NEWS page! Watch this space to find regular updates of what our team has been up to.