People

Mathieu Lihoreau – CNRS Research Director

NAVIGATION AND COGNITIVE ECOLOGY.I am broadly interested in the evolution of cognition in insects. Current projects focus on how pollinators decide to move, interact and exploit floral ressources across landscapes. This requires to develop tools to track insects, run behavioural experiments and build computational models.

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ResearchGate
📧 mathieu.lihoreau@univ-tlse3.fr

Kristine Abenis – PhD Student

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ResearchGate
📧 Kristine.abenis@univ-tlse3.fr

ECOTOXICOLOGY OF POLLINATORS. I am interested in characterizing normal and induced variation in cognitive traits within bee populations. I use automated tests to mass phenotype the cognitive health of bees exposed to various environmental stressors.

Joanna Brebner – Postdoc

LARGE SCALE NAVIGATION. I study the long distance foraging patterns of bees exploiting arrays of feeding locations.

ResearchGate
📧 Joanna.brebner@univ-tlse3.fr

Charlotte Doussot – Postdoc

VISION IN NAVIGATION. My research focuses on how insects, and more specifically bees, use different guidance systems to navigate. I study these mechanisms in the different routines performed by foragers collecting food for their hive: for example, when forming circuits between multiple food sources or when returning to the nest.  To answer this question, I study the behaviour of bees, notably through the analysis of their flight trajectories. In addition, I use modelling analysis in comparison with the observed behaviour to generate hypotheses on plausible steering mechanisms. 

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ResearchGate
📧 charlotte.doussot@univ-tlse3.fr

Loïc Goulefert – Research Engineer

DEVELOPMENT OF AUTOMATED COGNITIVE TESTS. I develop automated devices and computational programs for high throughput research on bee cognition. Part of this work is made in collaboration with the company BeeGuard.

📧 loic.goulefert@univ-tlse3.fr

Mathilde Lacombrade – PhD Student

COMPARATIVE COGNITION. I study the cognitive abilities and foraging behaviour of invasive Asian hornets. This work is a collaboration with Denis Théry at the INRAE center of Bordeaux (France) and the company M2i Biocontrol.

ResearchGate
📧 mathilde.lacombrade@univ-tlse3.fr

Juliane Mailly – PhD Student

MODELING BEE MOVEMENTS. My research aims at understanding how different pollinator species, and in particular bees, can forage efficiently in their environment using modelling and experimental tools. In particular, I am interested in the interaction between the insect’s cognition and the environment and the emergence of different movement patterns. These insights on pollinators’ movements will help to get better predictions on pollination and plant reproduction. This work is a collaboration with Louise Riotte-Lambert at the CEFE CNRS in Montpelier (France).

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📧 Juliane.mailly@univ-tlse3.fr

Gabriel Madirolas – Research Engineer

RADAR TRACKING. I develop radars and computational tools to study bee movements in the field. This work is a collaboration with Hervé Aubert at the LAAS CNRS in Toulouse (France).

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ResearchGate
📧 Gabriel.madirolas@univ-tlse3.fr

Blandine Mahot-Castaing – Research Engineer

LAB MANAGER. I am involved the various experiments in the lab but mostly in the field. I take care of the students, and above all, I run the lab!

📧 blandine.mahot-castaing@univ-tlse3.fr

Annkathrin Sonntag – PhD Student

NAVIGATION IN 3D. My research aims at understanding how bees use visual cues from all three dimensions to orient and find target locations. This project is collaboration with Martin Egelhaaf and Olivier Bertrand at the University of Bielefeld (Germany).

📧 a.sonntag@uni-bielefeld.de

Some past lab mates

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