Valentin Ambroise, PhD

Passionate about nature and the ability of plants to adapt to their environment, Valentin Ambroise studied biology at the University of Namur. Her thesis focused on the reproductive success of two orchid species and intermediate individuals within a mixed population. He then completed his end-of-master internship in Lisbon with the aim of studying the genetic relationships between plants capable of parthenogenesis (Limonium algarvense & L. plurisquamatum) and related species.

In 2017, he obtained a doctoral grant from the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR) to study the impact of heavy metals on the frost resistance of willow roots.

This thesis, carried out at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology within the team of Jean-François Hausman, combined plant physiology, transcriptomics, proteomics and measurements of enzymatic activities in order to understand how roots exposed to heavy metals were able to withstand frost better than healthy roots.

At the end of his thesis, Valentin joined the E-BIOM team as a project manager dealing with the assessment of the biological quality of soils.