Plenary Speakers
Title: Insects as an endless source of templates for bioinspiration
Jérôme Casas obtained his Ph.D. from the ETH Zurich in 1989. After a short post-doc at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, he was hired assistant professor at the ETH Zurich. He migrated to the US in 1993, working at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and returned to Europe as full Professor in 1995 in Tours. His interests span organismal biology and ecology; behavior and population dynamics of consumer-resource interactions; the sensory ecology of mimetism; flow sensing in biotic interactions and locomotion in granular materials and at the air-water interface. The physicochemical transport in olfaction and biologically inspired microtechnology are the two curent main topics. A notable feature of my approach is the blending of natural history with both state-of-the-art technology and modeling.
From 2001 to 2008, he was the director of the Institut de Recherche sur la Biologie de l’Insecte (UMR CNRS). He contributed to many scientific boards, the most notable being BIOKON-The International Biomimetics Association (Berlin) as well as the interdisciplinary committee of the Canada Research Chairs program (Ottawa). He was awarded the ETH medal for a thesis in the University’s top 10%, was nominated junior, later senior member of the IUF (Institut Universitaire Français), and was the Distinguished Invited Professor of the Center for Insect Science at the University of Arizona in Tucson in 2006. He did hold the excellency Chair for bio-inspired technologies at the LETI CEA. He got a Humboldt research award to work on bio-inspired technology. He is a fellow of the Corresponding Fellow Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Honorary Professor at the university Heriot-Watt. Prof. Casas also served on the editorial board of a number of ecological, physiological and interdisciplinary journals. Currently, he is editor in chief of Current opinion in Insect Sciences.
Title: Insect invasions in an era of globalization
Cleo Bertelsmeier is currently Associate Professor and group leader at the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland). She studied at the University of Oxford (UK) and received her PhD from the University of Paris XI (France) on the topic of climate change impacts on ant invasions. She then did a postdoc at the University of Adelaide (Australia) and the University of Lausanne. She is interested in spatial patterns and temporal dynamics of invasions at a global scale, especially in the light of ongoing globalization, and species responses to novel climatic conditions and communities. Much of her research focusses on ants, but many concepts and tools that are developed in the group are more broadly applicable. Her research lab uses a combination of macroecological data analyses, experiments and field work.
Title: Unraveling insect-microbe symbioses from the molecular to the organismal level
Soon available…
Title: The fly’s defensive repertoire: genes, cells and behaviour
My ultimate fascination is how the genome shapes and affects the ability of organisms to adapt to a changing world. I have been investigating the causes and consequences of genomic variation within and among species, using a combination of experimentation, genomic approaches, and bioinformatics, to study the evolutionary biology of ecological interactions. In my research, I focus mostly on Drosophila, as this genetically tractable model system with well-studied ecological drivers is ideal for addressing the molecular mechanisms of evolutionary adaptation. In this system, I map the complex gene networks that coordinate ecologically relevant traits and reveal how genomes change during evolution. My research aims are to unravel the molecular principles of evolutionary innovation, and to study functional diversification and interference of gene regulatory networks. For applied research, I work together with various commercial partners for co-creation of knowledge for biological control, insect mass-rearing and in developing insects as mini-livestock for feed.
During my MSc Biology (Leiden University) and PhD studies (Wageningen University) I investigated how Drosophila copes with environmental stressors such as parasitoids, competitors and toxic fungi. As I finished my PhD, the first whole-genome sequence of Drosophila had just been completed. I joined in a collaborative project between University College London and Imperial College London as postdoc, under the supervision of Prof Linda Partridge, Prof. Charles Godfray and Dr. Lex Kraaijeveld. I started using genomic technologies to investigate plasticity and evolution in Drosophila environmental stress responses. In 2009, I started my independent research group on evolutionary genomics at the University of Groningen, supported by a Rosalind Franklin Fellowship. With my team, I investigated various aspects of Drosophila ecology to gain insights in to how different types of selection pressure may impact the genome during adaptations, and vice versa, how the genomic variation influences ecological traits. In 2024, I became the Chair the Laboratory of Entomology at Wageningen University & Research, where I will be expanding my research and education on the functioning and evolution of insects in their ecological interactions.
Title: Insect multitrophic interaction for sustainable plant protection
Professor of Entomology at the University of Napoli Federico II (Italy) and Visiting Professor at Newcastle University (UK). The study of the molecular physiology of insect multitrophic interactions is at the core of his research interests, along with biotechnologies for insect control that can be developed based on this knowledge. His work particularly focuses on insect immunity and immunosuppression strategies by parasites and pathogens, and on how environmental stress can alter insect immunocompetence. In 2014 he was awarded the Cozzarelli Prize by the National Academy of Sciences of U.S.A. In 2022, he was elected EMBO member in recognition of outstanding contributions to life science research. Currently serves as President of the Italian National Academy of Entomology. He is member of the Council for International Congresses of Entomology and of the Praesidium of European Congresses of Entomology.
