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Apolline Louvet

 

Photo Apolline Louvet 

 

Apolline Louvet

Junior researcher, BioSP Unit, INRAE Avignon

apolline.louvet[at]inrae.fr

 

I am a junior researcher ("chargée de recherche") in the "Biostatistiques et Processus Spatiaux" (BioSP) unit at INRAE Avignon, and I am part of the Plant Health and Environment (SPE) department of INRAE. 

I develop and study stochastic population dynamics and population genetics models for populations out of equilibrium, such as expanding populations or populations affected by frequent extinction events. This covers a wide variety of models, such as space-continuous measure-valued population genetics processes, variants of the Wright-Fisher model with a seed bank component, or branching processes. While these models are interesting in their own right from a mathematical viewpoint, they also present applications in ecology, as "proofs of concept" that some biological phenomenon observed in real life can be reproduced only using stochasticity in reproduction, or as bases to build estimators and perform statistical inference on real data. Therefore, my research interests also include the application of the models I study to questions arising in ecology, epidemiology and population genetics. 

I am currently working on a variety of topics, including the following ones.

  • Epidemiology models in a spatial continuum, using the EpiSLFV process introduced with Bastian Wiederhold in this article
  • Dormancy, and more specifically its interplay with recurrent extinction events
  • Spatio-temporal models of ecological networks, as part of the Ecocontrol project
  • Dynamics of transposable elements in the genome
  • Growth dynamics of the infty-parent SLFV process, and application to genetic diversity at the front edge (see here for the latest developments on this question)

I did my PhD under the supervision of Amandine Véber (mathematician at CNRS) and Nathalie Machon (ecologist at the French National Museum of Natural History), at the CMAP (Ecole Polytechnique) and MAP5 (Université Paris Cité) laboratories. From September 2022 to November 2023, I did a first postdoc at the University of Bath, under the supervision of Matt Roberts. I was then a postdoc in the group of Aurélien Tellier at TU Munich (Professorship for Population Genetics, School of Life Sciences) until August 2024.

 

Preprints

  • "Effect of stochasticity on the growth of the infty-parent SLFV process", Igelbrink, J.-L. and L. A. (2025)
    Arxiv
  • "A new stochastic SIS-type modelling framework for analysing epidemic dynamics in continuous space", L. A. and Wiederhold, B. (2025)
    Arxiv
  • "Asymptotics for the growth of the infinite-parent Spatial Lambda-Fleming-Viot model", L. A. and Roberts, M. (2024) 
    Arxiv

Publications

  • "Assessing the extinction risk of the spontaneous flora in urban tree bases", L. A., Mantoux C. and Machon, M., PLOS Computational Biology (2024) 
    Article, HAL
  • "Measure-valued growth processes in continuous space and growth properties starting from an infinite interface", L. A. and Véber, A., Stochastic Processes and their Applications (2024) 
    Article, Arxiv, HAL
  • "Stochastic measure-valued models for populations expanding in a continuum", L. A., ESAIM - Probability and Statistics (2023) 
    Article, Arxiv, HAL
  • "Extinction threshold and large population limit of a plant metapopulation model with recurrent extinction events and a seed bank component", L. A., Theoretical Population Biology (2022). 
    Article, Arxiv, HAL
  • "Detecting seed bank influence on plant metapopulation dynamics", L., A., Machon, N., Mihoub, J. B., and Robert, A. Methods in Ecology and Evolution (2021) 
    Article, Preprint (HAL, submitted version), Blog article

The manuscript of my thesis, titled "Probabilistic population genetics models for expanding populations", can be found here.

Talks

Invitations to seminars

  • 2025: Marseille (11/03), Lyon (17/04), Warwick (30/04), Poitiers (10/06)
  • 2024: Besançon (29/01), Munich (TU Munich, Probability group, 01/07)
  • 2023: Bloomington (Indiana University, 23/01), Bristol (24/02), One World Probability Seminar (15/03), Toulouse (11/04), Grenoble (20/06), Nancy (20/10), Oxford (30/10)
  • 2022: Toulouse (séminaire des doctorants, 10/03), Paris (LPSM, séminaire des doctorants, 25/04), Bath (Centre for Mathematical Biology, 20/10)
  • 2021: Berlin (en ligne, 31/05), Munich (TU Munich, en ligne, 01/12), INRIA Paris (groupe de lecture de l'équipe NEMO, 02/12)

Recent talks at summer schools, conferences and workshops

  • "Dormancy in urban ecosystems: the example of urban tree bases" 
    GT Maths-Bio Sud-Est, I2M, 21/03/2025
  • "Dormancy in urban ecosystems: the example of urban tree bases" 
    Conference MMEE 2024, TU Wien, 18/07/2024
  • "Modelling populations expanding in a spatial continuum" 
    Workshop "Models and Inference in Population Genetics", University of Warwick, 18/04/2024
  • "Modelling populations expanding in a spatial continuum" 
    Thematic day on branching processes, Ecole Polytechnique, 25/01/2024
  • "Dormancy in urban ecosystems: the example of urban tree bases" 
    Workshop "Critical phenomena and challenges emerging from dormancy", GU Frankfurt, 18/12/2023
  • "Modelling populations expanding in a spatial continuum" 
    Conference of the GdR Branchement, IMT, Toulouse, 08/11/2023
  • "Stochastic measure-valued processes for populations expanding in a spatial continuum" 
    Conference "Stochastic Processes and their Applications", Lisbonne, 25/06/2023
  • "The ∞ -parent SLFV - Definition and growth properties" 
    Workshop "Random Discrete Structure", Muenster, 23/03/2023
  • "A toy model for studying the consequences of the microscopic reproduction dynamics at the edge of an expanding population" 
    BUC Probability Meeting, CIMAT, Guanajuato, 20/01/2023

Others

  • Blog article (in English) presenting the results from the article "Detecting seed bank influence on plant metapopulation dynamics".
  • Video (English subtitles) introducing Conway's "game of life", as part of the Fête de la Science (Science Fair) 2020.

 

From 2019 to 2022, I was a teaching assistant at the Applied Mathematics Department (DepMAP) of Ecole Polytechnique. In 2023, I also participated to the teaching of the course "Probability with Martingales" at the University of Bath.

Year 2022-2023

  • Probability with Martingales, University of Bath
    In charge of 4 weeks of classes (12h)
  • Selected Topis in Probability, Indiana University
    Mini-course (2h) on spatial Lambda-Fleming Viot processes.

Year 2021-2022

  • Discrete Mathematics (MAA103), Bachelor 1A, Ecole Polytechnique
    In charge of tutorials for two groups.

Year 2020-2021

  • Probability: Stochastic Processes (MAA305), Bachelor 3A, Ecole Polytechnique
    In charge of three weeks of tutorials.
  • Discrete Mathematics (MAA103), Bachelor 1A, Ecole Polytechnique
    In charge of tutorials for two groups.

Year 2019-2020

  • Discrete Mathematics (MAA103), Bachelor 1A, Ecole Polytechnique
    In charge of tutorials for two groups.

 

A more detailed CV is available here (in French, last updated: Jan. 2024).

  • Sept. 2024 - ... : Junior researcher, BioSP Unit, SPE Department, INRAE
  • Dec. 2023 - Aug. 2024 : Postdoc in the group of Aurélien Tellier, TU Munich.
  • Sept. 2022 - Nov. 2023 : Research associate (postdoc) in probability at the University of Bath, under the supervision of Matt Roberts.
  • 2019-2022 : PhD in applied mathematics (CMAP, MAP5) under the supervision of Amandine Véber (MAP5) and Nathalie Machon (CESCO)
  • 2018-2019 : Internship at the CESCO laboratory (MNHN) under the supervision of Nathalie Machon
  • 2017-2018 : M2 MSV (Mathematics for the Life Sciences), Université Paris Sud
  • 2015-2019 : Student at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) in Paris

Email address: apolline.louvet[at]inrae.fr
Orcid: 0000-0003-1820-5648