Curriculum vitae

Current situation

Postdoctoral fellow (Apr. 2025 – present) – Vegetation and disturbances modeling
CNRS Chrono-environnement Lab, Besançon, France
Topic: Modelling and assessment of combined risk of fire-insects outbreaks in boreal forest (ANR project RETROPEST, PI: Dr. Damien Rius)

Associate Editor at Journal of Applied Ecology since 2020.

Co-Head of the french podcast ‘Après La Thèse – ALT’ : https://linktr.ee/apreslathese

See my Google Scholar page and my ORCID
Follow me on Bluesky: @cecileremy.bsky.social

Research experiences

Oct. 2020 – Feb. 2025
Associate Researcher – Paleoecology and forest modelling
Chair of physical geography and climate science, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany
PI of the project GUARDIAN: ‘Identifying forest refugia in Central European mountains under Climate Change’ funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft)

Feb. 2018 – Sept. 2020
Postdoctoral fellow – Vegetation and carbon modeling
Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA
Supervisor: Prof. Matthew Hurteau
Topic: Interaction of climate change and wildfire on post-fire recovery in the landscapes of the northern New Mexico (USDA NIFA, Interagency Carbon Cycle Science)

Feb. 2017 – Jan. 2018
Postdoctoral fellow – Ecology of disturbances
Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution, CNRS, Montpellier, France
Supervisor: Prof. Christelle Hély-Alleaume (EPHE–ISEM)
Topic: Assessment of climate-vegetation-fire interactions in eurasian boreal forests (2002-2017) (EU Horizon 2020 project PREREAL)

Dec. 2016 – Jan. 2017
Postdoctoral fellow – Paleoecology of wildfires
Institute of forest research,Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (Rouyn-Noranda, Canada)
Supervisors: Prof. Hugo Asselin (UQAT) & Prof. Adam A. Ali (ISEM)
Topic: Comparisons of paleoecological indicators for the reconstruction of forest fire regimes (Mitacs Canada)

Education

International jointly supervised PhD in Environmental Sciences (2016)
Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (Rouyn-Noranda, Canada) & Université de Montpellier (Montpellier, France)
“Spatial and temporal dynamics of fire and vegetation during Holocene in coniferous boreal forest (Quebec-Labrador)” (see my thesis)
Supervisors: Prof. Yves Bergeron (UQAT), Prof. Christelle Hély-Alleaume (EPHE – ISEM), Adam A. Ali (ISEM) & Prof. Martin Lavoie (ULaval – CEN)
Grants: NSERC of Canada, European mobility project NEWFORESTS, GDRI Forêts Froides, Mobility support Frontenac for PhD students jointly supervised in France and Quebec

M. Sc. 2^nd year Sciences and Technologies of the living and the environment (2012)
AgroParisTech (Kourou, French Guiana) & Université de Lorraine (Nancy, France)

M. Sc. 1^st year Forestry, Agronomy and Environmental Management (2011)
Université de Lorraine (Nancy, France)

B. Sc. Living Sciences (2010)
Université de Lorraine (Nancy, France)

Granted Patent & scholarship

Co-coordinator in the RETROPEST project ‘Wildfires and Insect Outbreaks in boreal forests. A combined approach using paleo-ecology and sedimentary DNA‘ (2024-2028) in the Work Package ‘Modelling and assessment of combined risk of fire-spruce budworm outbreaks‘ funds by the French National Research Agency (ANR). PI: Damien Rius.

Principal Investigator of the GUARDIAN project ‘Identifying forest refugia in Central European mountains under Climate Change’ (2022-2025) funds by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation). PI: Cécile Remy, collaborators: Dominik Thom and Rupert Seidl.

Winner of the Frontenac program to support the mobility of doctoral students registered in joint supervision of Franco-Quebec thesis (2014) on the project ‘Interactions between climate, fires and vegetation dynamics during the Holocene and in the future on the Côte-Nord region (Quebec-Labrador)’ funded by the Government of Quebec and the Consulate General of France in Quebec.

AWARDS & DISTINCTION

Mobility aid for woman in science from the University of Augsburg (Germany) – 2023
Price of the ‘Science Program for Excellence in Science’ of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) – 2020
Mobility aid for early-career researchers from the PAGES association – 2017
UQAT merit award for acceptance with minor corrections of my thesis by the members of the jury in less than four years after the start of the doctorate – 2016
Mobility assistance from the Forestry Research Center of the Universities of Quebec, the Association of French Palynologists and the GAÏA Doctoral School of the University of Montpellier – 2016
Merit award from UQAT for passing my environmental summary exam as a partial condition of the doctorate in less than 16 months after the start of the doctorate – 2014
Merit award from UQAT for passing my thesis project exam as a partial condition of the doctorate in less than four months after the start of the doctorate – 2013

Professional and Academic Services

Editorial works:

Associate Editor for Journal of Applied Ecology since 2020.
Co-editor of a special issue in Forests entitled ‘Past environmental changes and forest conservation’ with Adam Ali and Rachid Cheddadi (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/forests/special_issues/Forest_Conservation_Environment).

Expert roles:

Participation in the assessment of the current state of the science related to the projected impacts of future climate change scenarios on American forests carried out for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) in 2024-2025

Committee member for a national organization:

Scientific committee for the Colloquium ECOVEG 17 (2024) “Ecologie des communautés végétales, Anthropisation des communautés végétales en environnement changeant” (France).
Selection committee 2019-2020 of Graduate Women in Science National Fellowship Program (USA).

Reviewer for research funding projects:

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinshaft (DFG), for the annual call for projects 2024
National Science Fundation (NSF), for CAREER project of the annual call for projects 2022
Graduate Women in Science Fellowship (GWS), for the annual call for projects 2020

Reviewer for the following journals: Nature, Journal of Ecology, Biology Letters, Diversity and Distributions, Geophysical Research Letters, Ecosystems, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, Forest Ecosystems, Journal of Quaternary Science, The Holocene, International Journal of Wildland Fire, Canadian Journal of Forest Research, PlosOne.

Member of scientific associations:

since 2022 SFE² (French Society of Ecology and Evolution)
since 2016 International Research Network on Cold Forests (IRN Cold Forests)
since 2020 British Ecological Society
2019 – 2020 Graduate Women in Sciences (GWIS chapter lota Nu)
2019 – 2020 American Association for the Advancement of Science
2014 – 2017 Association of French Palynologists

EXPEDITIONS, Skills & Expertises

Expeditions:

Coring lake sediments (Šumava National Park, Czech Republic)
Several experimental fieldworks with forest inventories (New Mexico, USA)
Sampling in forests and peat bogs, forest inventories, prospecting of lakes for sedimentary studies and coring of lake sediments (Quebec-Labrador, Canada)
Ethnobotanical surveys for 3 months (French Guiana, France)

Paleoecology: Protocol for the laboratory preparation and analysis of pollen grains and charcoal from lake sediments to reconstruct the dynamics of vegetation and past fire regimes

Modelling: parameterization, calibration and analyzes of process-based forest landscape model outputs simulating the spatio-temporal dynamics of vegetation and disturbance regimes. Models used: LANDIS-ii and iLand

IT skills: R (confirmed) and some knowledge of other languages (Python, C++), GIS software (QGIS), paleoecological software (Tilia, CharAnalysis, WinSeedle), graphic editing software

Languages: french (mother tongue), english (fluent and professional), german (basics).

STUDent supervision

PhD student :

Sarah Le Berre (2023-2026, 36 months) – Technische Universität Dresden (Germany). Subject: Identification of forest refuges in the mountains of Central Europe under climate change. Supervisors: Cécile Remy (50%), Dominik Thom (50%)

Master :

Antonia Augustin (2025, 6 months) – CNRS Chrono-environnement (France) & Universität Augsburg (Germany). Subject: Modeling spruce budworm outbreaks and fire regimes in the Côte-Nord region, Quebec. Supervisors: Cécile Remy (75%), Damien Rius (25%).
Dorian Gaboriau (2017, 6 months) – Université de Montpellier (France). Subject: Characterization of circumboreal fires by remote sensing products. Supervisors: Christelle Hély (50%), Cécile Remy (50%).
Benjamin Andrieux (2014, 6 months) – Université de Montpellier (France). Subject: Vegetation dynamics and paleofires during the Holocene in Eastern Canada. Supervisors: Adam Ali (50%), Cécile Remy (50%).

Professional Bachelor :

Maël Casu (2014, 6 months) – Université de Rouyn-Noranda (Canada). Subject: Reconstruction of the fire history in the boreal forest: dendrochronology compared to the analysis of lacustrine charcoals. Supervisor: Hugo Asselin (50%), Adam Ali (25%) and Cécile Remy (25%).

Higher Agricultural Technician Diploma

Alexandre Clusel (2014, 3 months) – Université de Montpellier (France). Subject: Changes in the organic composition of boreal forest soil during the Holocene period in Quebec. Supervisor: Cécile Remy (100%).

Workshop participant in “Improving PhD supervision“, Nov. 2022, SFE²-GfÖ-EEF meeting, Metz, France

Teaching

Lecturer at University of Augsburg (2020-2025), Bachelor in Physical Geography & Master Geography/Climate) on:

Advanced Programming with R (M1)
Forest dynamics modeling (M1)
Seminars: Climate variability (M1/2)
Seminars: Urban climatology (B3)
Seminars: Natural Climate and Human Impacts on Climate (B3)

‘Supply’ teacher at Université de Montpellier (2015-2016, Bachelor Biology-Ecology) on:

Diversity and evolution of living and fossil plants (B2)
Paleoenvironments Reconstruction: tools and methods (B3)

Workshop participant in “Evidence based methods for engaging Teaching“, 30 Oct. 2018, Albuquerque, USA

Tutor of students in 1^st year Bachelor’s Degree Living Sciences (2010-2011)
Teaching aids, Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France

Internships before PhD

M. Sc. 2^nd year (2012)
“Analysis of PAH residues and amounts of phenols in fish smoked with woods traditionally used in French Guiana”
Guyane Technopole – CIRAD –MNHN, Cayenne, France

M. Sc. 1^st year (2011)
“Intraspecific variability of stomatal conductance and chlorophyll content in a natural population of Quercus robur”
INRA, Champenoux, France

Bachelor (2009)
“Study of secondary metabolism of plants to optimize the production of high added-value molecules”
Institut National Polytechnique de Lorraine, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France

Bachelor (2009)
“Rats behavior faced with a sexual partner choice”
Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France