After receiving his Bachelor’s degree in Biology of Organisms, Populations and Ecosystems from the Université d’Auvergne Clermont-Ferrand, France, Romain went on and completed his Master’s in Biology and Marine Ecosystems in Marseille, France, with an emphasis on mathematics and modelling.

He finished his PhD in April 2021 at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS). His research aimed to model biodiversity as a complex adaptive system. To do so, his PhD focused on using eco-evolutionary dynamics to let adaptive trend emerge in models. As a result, the mizerEvolution R package was created, an extension of the size spectrum model R package Mizer, which allows to link eco-evolutionary dynamics to body size theory. Such a model helped explore how fish communities can adapt to rapid change in their environment such as over-fishing or global warming but also how life history strategies such as various types of feeding can emerge depending on the environment.

Romain is now working as a computer specialist at IMAS, producing teaching materials to encourage and help people to use size-based theory in their models.