About us

BEC-ULiège (Biology, Evolution, Conservation) is a group of three labs at the University of Liège, which are part of the InBioS Research Center and the Department of Biology, Ecology and Evolution (BEE).

They are led by PIs Flavien Collart, Nicolas Magain and Alain Vanderpoorten.

Alain's research has a focus on bryophytes, but also on beta-diversity, phylogenetic turnover and niche conservatism of plants, with a focus on Switzerland and Macaronesia.

On the evolution side, Nicolas studies lichen symbioses, in particular between Peltigera fungi and Nostoc cyanobacteria. He uses phylogenetics, metagenomics, population genomics and community ecology to study these symbioses. On the conservation side, he is involved in several local projects. Current projects focus on birds, and on fungi. In addition, he teaches classes on Evolution, Biodiversity, Plant Systematics and Conservation Biology at the Bachelor and Master levels.

Flavien's research focuses on species distributions across space and time by characterizing species ecological niches and by taking species dispersal capacities into account.

In additon to the three PIs, BEC-ULiège currently consists in eleven PhD students, one researcher and ten master students.