We are pleased to announce that the IRBV 2025 annual report is now available.

In the interest of ecology and reducing our environmental footprint, this report is offered only in digital format, accessible on our website.

Happy reading!

The Plant Functional Ecology Laboratory, directed by professor Etienne Laliberté, is seeking two technical assistants for the summer 2026 session. The work is part of the laboratory’s analysis platform, which offers research services using drones and artificial intelligence to map plant species. The successful candidates will assist the laboratory team with data analysis projects stemming from the platform’s service mandates. The tasks will primarily involve creating plant species annotations from orthomosaics and drone images. They may also include verifying the annotations and updating the datasets.

For more information, see this PDF document.

Josée Doyon, a research professional in Jacques Brodeur‘s laboratory, is one of the recipients of a 2026 Research Professional Excellence Award from the Fonds de Recherche du Québec (FRQ).

To find out more, see the winners’ page.

And congratulations to Josée!

Charlie Boutin, Ph.D. student under the supervision of David Morse and Daniel Kierzkowski, received a Young Investigator Award for her presentation at the SFRR-Europe Annual Meeting in Mainz, Germany. Sponsored by SFRR International, this award recognizes early-career researchers for the originality, innovation, impact, scientific relevance, and quality of communication of their work in free radical and redox biology. The award includes financial support to attend the following SFRR-Europe meeting, where awardees are invited to give a short oral presentation in a plenary session.

Hydrological dynamics and ecological trajectories of peatlands

The laboratory of ecosystem dynamics and wetlands of Stéphanie Pellerin is looking for a postdoctoral intern to participate in a research project at the University of Montreal focusing on the ecosystem evolution of peatlands in the context of hydrological pressures and climate change.

For more information, see this PDF document.

At the Eastern Montreal Chamber of Commerce (CCEM) ESTim Awards Gala, Michel Labrecque, on behalf of the IRBV and the Botanical Garden, accepted the award in the “Living Environment Improvement Project” category. This distinction is awarded annually to recognize innovation and leadership in Eastern Montreal. The jury recognized the initiative he is leading, which aims to create the “Forest of Tomorrow” on a site restored after eight years of phytoremediation.

In the photo: Michel with Ms. Sonia Gagné, VP Design, Senior Partner and Architect at Provencher Roy.

It is with deep sadness that we learned of the passing of Traian Ion (Jean) Teodorescu on April 22. Jean worked as a research professional at the IRBV for over 20 years, from 1991 to 2012. An agricultural engineer by training, he was a valued colleague of Michel Labrecque and collaborated with him on several research projects. Together, they published numerous scientific articles (24) on willow production and its use for environmental purposes. Jean and his family arrived in Quebec in 1989 as political refugees, fleeing the communist dictatorship imposed by Nicolae Ceaușescu’s regime in Romania. In Romania, he held important positions in the management of experimental farms. We will remember Jean Teodorescu as a rigorous yet creative man, deeply committed to his work and a significant contributor to the IRBV’s research activities. We offer our most sincere condolences to his family and friends.

Jacques Brodeur was awarded a 2025 Faculté des arts et des sciences teaching excellence award.

Extract from the press release:

“An exceptional educator and dedicated researcher, Jacques Brodeur received an Award for excellence in teaching for his professorial practice, which combines scientific rigor, pedagogical innovation, and humanity. For him, teaching awakens interest, even fascination, in a subject, in order to cultivate curious minds endowed with a scientific instinct.

His teaching style is characterized by active, problem-solving-focused learning. Having developed one of the only university courses on parasitism in Quebec, he guides students to draw upon their knowledge to grasp the complexity of host-parasite relationships and thus forge connections across the field of biology, linking theory and applications.”

Jacques Brodeur’s entomology laboratory is currently seeking a candidate for a summer contract. The successful candidate will participate in an applied study on the Japanese beetle and its parasitoid, Istocheta aldrichi, in Quebec, primarily through field sampling. This is a concrete opportunity to contribute to the understanding of an economically important pest and its natural enemy.

For all the information, see this PDF document.

Colin Favret‘s Insect Systematics and Biodiversity laboratory is currently seeking candidates for two summer contracts. Summary of tasks: sorting, preparing, labeling, and digitizing insect specimens; editing website content and online databases.

For more information, see this PDF document.

Two half-days have been scheduled for the final seminars of our Master’s students. We warmly invite you to mark these dates in your calendars and come and support our graduating students.

14 April 2026

• 9:00- Simon Pesant
• 9:30- Thomas Villeneuve
• 10:15- Marc-Antoine Poulin
• 10:45- Roberta D’Camp
• 11:15- Sufia Khader

21 April 2026

• 13:30- Rachel Parent
• 14:00- Shayma Karray
• 14:30- Éloi Ducharme-Dionne
• 15:15- Emmanuelle Brault
• 15:45- Maxime Guglielmetti
• 16:15- Benoit-Loup Denis-Legault

Biodiversity Centre amphitheater (B-104) or by Zoom.

An article has just been published in UdeM Nouvelles discussing the research work of Simone Aubé, supervised by Jacques Brodeur.. Read here.

Photo © Joseph Moisan-De Serres

Last week marked the inauguration of the Angèle St-Pierre and Hugo Larochelle Research Chair in Artificial Intelligence Applied to the Environment. Congratulations to Etienne Laliberté, the chairholder, and his research team, and thank you to Hugo Larochelle and Angèle St-Pierre for their commitment to the Université de Montréal. Their $2.5 million donation made possible the creation of this research chair, which is part of the L’intelligence artificielle au service de la planète project.

For more information see the Research Chair’s page.

Photo © Amélie Philibert, Université de Montréal

Two research assistant positions are currently available in Stéphanie Pellerin‘s ecosystem dynamics laboratory.

The people hired will be required to analyze and enter vegetation inventory data.

Candidates must be at the bachelor’s or master’s level, have a good knowledge of the nomenclature of Quebec’s flora, and possess good skills and rigor in database management on Excel.

For more information, see this PDF document.

Research internship in undergrowth restoration at Mont-St-Bruno National Park

The candidate must have a strong interest in identifying understory flora and in developing active restoration approaches that involve seeding, translocation of plants of interest and transfer of forest soil.

The main tasks associated with the position are:

• identification of species of interest for restoration
• botanical inventories
• soil characterization (humidity, temperature, microtopography)
• work in greenhouses and in the field
• setting up experimental designs

For more information, see this PDF document.

La dépollution grâce à la phytoremédiation (Pollution control through phytoremediation), an interview with Michel Labrecque broadcast on the Tout terrain rogramme on 4 January 2026, is available on Radio-Canada Ohdio.

A master’s scholarship is offered in entomology and bioinformatics to quantify the diversity of hundreds of thousands of pathogen-vectoring aphids. The project is supervised by Colin Favret (University of Montreal – IRBV) and Sébastien Boquel (CÉROM).

For more information, please visit this site.

On November 20th, the Association des Biologistes du Québec awarded the Pierre-Dansereau Prize to Jacques Brisson. This prize recognizes the exceptional contribution of a biologist who has distinguished themselves through research, teaching, or communication on biological diversity.

For more information, see this article.

(In the photo: Marie-Christine Bellemare, president of the ABQ; Bernice Chabot-Giguère, general manager. Photo Mycosphaera)