So, I’m incredibly excited (and a little heartbroken!) to be finally leaving France and completing my full circle around the globe to end up back in North America. I’ll be starting as Asst. Professor in the Biology department at McGill University in Montreal this summer.

It’s been an amazing journey and my life has been so enriched by so many amazing friends and collaborators. I have been especially fortunate to have amazing supervisors that gave me the patience and time I needed to keep going in science despite life constantly getting in the way.

I’m very excited about this next step. Quebec is a hub (epicentre? 🙂 for biodiversity science with hundreds of researcher doing cutting edge biodiversity research and key organisations such as the Quebec Centre for Biodiversity Science.

Plus, Montreal is quantifiably a super cool city, voted both the best city for students and having the coolest neighbourhood in the world. So come visit!

To students, I will be recruiting for Master and PhD projects soon, but feel free to contact me if you have something in mind..

To cap off a crazy year, it was a fabulous surprise to find out that we won a Research Prize for our nature paper- the La Recherche Prix 2017 for the Environment category. La Recherche is a popular science magazine (similar to the New Scientist). Thanks to La Recherche for a great honour and a lovely awards ceremony and cocktail. And the biggest surprise of all- W. Thuiller in a collared shirt!

I’ve finally been coerced into the online world beyond email. This is my attempt at sharing some of my research and hopefully connecting with other people with similar interests. And, if the time I spent picking out the theme for my blog is any indication, this will also be a great procrastination tool.