The CRCA is currently hosting as a Université Paul Sabatier invited professor, Prof. Rhiannon West. She will be at the CRCA until mid-November.
Rhiannon is professor of biology at Northern New Mexico College, in the small town of Española, New Mexico, USA.
Her research interest deals with the impact of the Major Histocompatibility Complex and the microbiome of the gut on behavioral decisions in fish – in particular the decisions related to mate choice and the implications of these decisions on fish speciation. Rhiannon is also very invoved in teaching (essentially undergraduates) in her host institution and she is interested in new teaching practices and in student exchanges.
The day was organized around 3 themes: Cognition and ecology, Neurobiology and cognition: towards a translational application, Inter-individual variability and collective behavior.
14 doctoral and post-doctoral students brilliantly presented their research work!
From 28 to 30 August, the CRCA-CBI hosted the 31st conference of the French section of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects.
Around a hundred people from France, Belgium, Spain and Switzerland came together to present and discuss their latest findings on the biology and ecology of social insects (ants, termites, bees, hornets, wasps and bumblebees).
The “BeeAntCE” team, Navigation and Cognitive Ecology, is interested in the study of cognition in an ecological, evolutionary and embodied context through one of the most impressive cognitive tasks in the animal world: insect navigation.
They officially started their activities on January 1, 2023.
Using ant societies as a study model, his research project aims to identify the physiological, behavioral and ecological determinants that predict the formation of reproductive hierarchies and the emergence of division of labor in animal societies.
To produce a response adapted to their environment, animals must perceive and integrate the information contained in it. Vision, in particular, is crucial in many species to directly acquire spatial information. Renaud will study how the information contained in the visual field is integrated by the individual to control its movement.
As part of the fight against Covid-19, researchers from the CRCA – CBI Toulouse have set up the Crowdfight COVID-19 platform, with the aim of putting the skills of researchers not mobilized on Covid-19 at the service of mobilized researchers.
Aurore Avarguès-Weber, researcher at the CRCA-CBI, was awarded the CNRS Bronze Medal last night for her work on bee cognition.
This distinction rewards the first works of researchers who are specialists in their field. It also represents an encouragement by the CNRS to pursue well initiated and already fruitful research.
The CRCA received Jean-Claude Ameisen, accompanied by his wife Fabienne and Gérard Bapt (physician, former deputy of Haute-Garonne). The researchers of the laboratory presented their research and work in progress. This day was full of exchanges and discussions!
Jean-Claude Ameisen is a french physician, immunologist and researcher in biology. He chaired the National Ethics Committee. He is Director of the Centre d’Études du Vivant of the Institut des Humanités de Paris of Paris-Diderot University. Every saturday, he gives a radio show, “Sur les épaules de Darwin” broadcasted on France Inter.
Enikő CSATA has just been recruited as a CNRS Researcher at CRCA-CBI.
From 28 to 30 August, the CRCA-CBI hosted the 31st conference of the French section of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects.
