M. Jerome Casas

Tél

0247366978

Mail

jerome.casas@univ-tours.fr

My research interests span physiology, organismal biology and ecology, including nutritional and reproductive physiology, behavior and population dynamics of consumer-resource interactions, in particular in the context of agroecology & agroforestry; sensory ecology of mimetism; flow sensing; locomotion in granular materials and at the air-water interface; physico-chemical transport in olfaction and biologically- inspired micro-technology. A much more comprehensive but older website is to be found at http://casas-lab.irbi.univ-tours.fr/home.html.
Driven by questions, I have worked on a large number of organisms, with a focus on insects. I work with a loose group of Ph.D. students, post-docs, technicians and faculty members composed of engineers, theoretical  and soft matter physicists, biologists and applied mathematicians in the field of physical ecology, in one of the very few places in France where this field is well represented.  This appetite for truly interdisciplinary work is also embodied in the visiting chair in bio-inspired technologies at the LETI in Grenoble (CEA) I am holding, see:
http://www.leti-cea.com/cea-tech/leti/english/Pages/Applied-Research/Chair%20of%20Excellence/Carnot-Chair-Excellence.aspx

A film which highlights best our approach is called ‘Insects: small scale physics’, to see at: : http://videotheque.cnrs.fr/doc=4075 (both in French and English). Physics, math or chemistry are powerful tools but cannot replace the knowledge and contextualization gained while observing the real life in Nature and I am proud that my most cited paper, published in  Nature,  was carried out in my home garden. Indeed, a notable feature of my approach is the blending of natural history (my love for insects started as amateur entomologist fascinated by chalcid parasitic wasps) with both state-of-the-art technology and modeling.