Yann, please tell us a bit about your background and profession?
Hello! I was born in France and pursued studies in agriculture, environmental and food sciences in both France and the Netherlands. I earned my PhD in Agroecology from the University of Göttingen in Germany. My main interests lie in finding solutions and strategies to jointly conserve nature in farmland and achieve a productive yet sustainable agriculture. I have extensive experience working in interdisciplinary research groups, focusing on land use change from biological, environmental, and economic perspectives.
I first came to Lund in 2012 as a BECC guest researcher, and was appointed Professor of Environmental Sciences at CEC in 2017. I’ve been part of the leadership at CEC for several years, primarily as Assistant Director responsible for research, and more recently also as Deputy Director. I am also a board member for BECC.
How would you briefly describe yourself as a person?
I approach things with curiosity and optimism, and I enjoy identifying new opportunities—such as connecting different areas of research.
As Assistant Head of Department, Focus Research, what does your role entail, and how do you approach it?
In my new role, I see my responsibility as helping researchers make the most of available funding opportunities and advancing environmental research and education at Lund University. So, there’s a double approach: a strong bottom-up aspect in helping individual researchers find relevant calls and secure funding for their ideas. And also a more strategic side—when major funders or the university announce new initiatives, part of my role is to ensure that MGeo is well-positioned to respond and benefit, across all its research areas.
What are the opportunities and challenges of merging and integrating the three units – in your focus area Research?
One of MGeo’s greatest strengths is its breadth of disciplines, offering opportunities for new scientific ideas and interdisciplinary collaboration—sharing both knowledge and methods across groups. Of course, this also presents a challenge: supporting a larger and more diverse research community. But I find that both exciting and rewarding, and I really look forward to working on it.
A key will be to create the right conditions for this to happen. I believe the best ideas will come from “bottom up” from the MGeo research community, so I see my role as enabling that process, rather than steering it from the top down.
In your view, what could this transition open up for the department in the long term?
In 5–10 years, I believe our research and education will be both diverse and integrated in a way that creates real added value—making this a visibly unique place to be, attracting even more talented people.
What feels most exciting about the new job?
A much larger group and many new colleagues, it will be super exciting to work together with the entire MGeo staff.