Simon Pesant will start a M.Sc. in september 2024 on the ecology and conservation of species of the freshwater tidal estuary of the St. Lawrence river. This project is in collaboration with the Ministère de l’Environnement, de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques, de la Faune et des Parcs.
Simon is finishing is B.Sc. in biological sciences at the Université de Montréal (UdeM) while doing a honors projects on the taxonomy of Bidens (Asteraceae) in our lab. He has been fascinated by biodiversity for a long time, at first especially with amphibians and other animals. However, he eventually developed and interest in plants thanks to the excellent courses in botany given by Prof. Léveillé-Bourret… 🙂
Marc-Aurèle Vallée started a M.Sc. in september 2023 on the phylogeny and evolution of North American hawthorns (Crataegus subg. Americanae) à l’aide marqueurs génomiques (HybSeq), a project we are doing in collaboration with Dr. Roswitha Schmickl from Czech Republic.
Before coming to our lab, Marc-Aurèle did his undergraduate degree in biologie at the Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR). During this time, he worked in plant ecology for several employers including an environmental consulting coop (Bureau d’écologie appliquée), and his skills in field botany and floristics are therefore already well established!
Maurane Bourgouin started her Ph.D. in 2022 on the evolution of freshwater tidal Bidens (beggar’s ticks), a lineage comprising several rare and globally threatened species.
Before arriving in our lab, she did a M.Sc. on the ecology of bryophytes of the boreal forest at the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue. She also worked in bryophyte ecology and conservation for the COSEWIC and for the University of Moncton. Her experience with the identification of taxonomically difficult bryophytes has prepared her well for the systematic challenges lying ahead with Bidens!
Étienne Lacroix-Carignan arrived in our lab in 2021 and is doing his Ph.D. on the systematics of Carex sect. Lupulinae, a group that has seen several taxonomic revisions already, but that still hides more than a few surprises!
He is passionate about botany and ecology, and is interested in all sorts of organisms, from sedges to bryophytes and lichens, to difficult genera such as hawthorns (Crataegus). He is very active on iNaturalist and in our local field botany association FloraQuebeca.
Current co-supervision
Stéphanie Rivest started a postdoc in 2023, co-supervised by Simon Joly and Stéphanie Pellerin of the Montreal Botanical Garden. Her research project, financed by MITACS, aims to test whether urbanization influence functional traits of plants, through the meta-analysis of several ecological datasets collected in multiple cites across North America.
Cassandra Bradshaw started her Ph.D. in 2022 in the lab of Julian Starr at the University of Ottawa, with me as a co-supervisor. Her thesis aims to resolve the remaining taxonomic and phylogenetic questions surrounding the genera Schoenoplectus and Schoenoplectiella, both particularly diversified in East Asia, but also with represented by several taxa endemic to freshwater tidal estuaries.
Former graduate students
Dylan Longert successfully defended his M.Sc. thesis in 2021. He was supervised by Julian Starr at the University of Ottawa and co-supervised by me. During his thesis, he demonstrated how inflorescence pigmentation of Cyperaceae is correlated with climate, and suggested a potential adaptive of pigmentation in this mostly wind-pollinated lineage.
Former undergraduate students
Amélie Laperle, honours research student in 2023-2024 on the ecology of charophytes of the freshwater estuary of the St. Lawrence.
Sarah Thibodeau-Caouette, honours research student in 2022-2023 on the development of molecular markers for the identification of native hawthorn species (Crataegus).
Florence Lemay, research intern in 2022 on the differentiation of the threatened Cicula maculata var. victorinii from the common var. maculata.
Martine Pelletier, research intern in 2022 on the identification of hawthorns (Crataegus) using leaf spectroscopy.
Apolline Moiron, French undergraduate student that did an internship in 2022 on molecular phylogenetics of Carex sect. Lupulinae.
Sidi Mohamed Lakehal, research intern in 2022 on morphological variation in Crataegus ser. Rotundifoliae in the province of Quebec.
Roxanne Fontaine-Garant, research intern in 2022 on the identification of Canada hawthorn (Crataegus canadensis) using morphometric analysis.
Zachary Forgues, research intern in 2022 on the ecology of hawthorns (Crataegus) in the islands of Montreal and Laval.