Louis François gained a degree in physical sciences at the University of Liège (1982). He began his research career University of Liège’s Astrophysics Institute, in Professor Jean-Claude Gérard’s department. Under the latter’s supervision he undertook a doctoral thesis, completed in 1988, which used mathematical modelling to retrace the climate developments over the 4.6 billion years of our planet’s existence. As a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Michigan, Louis François then developed a climate model and a CO2 cycle model for the planet Mars! Our researcher came back down to Earth in 1992: an FNRS qualified researcher, he launched into the study of the impact of global warming on terrestrial vegetation. In parallel with that, Louis François has also developed a modelisation of the impact of the rising of the Himalayan mountain chain on the climate evolutions of the last 50 million years. He was appointed lecturer at the University of Liège in 2007 within the framework of the new Masters degree in Climatology.

Selection of publications

LAURENT J.-M., FRANCOIS L., BAR-HEN A., BEL L., CHEDDADI R., European Bioclimatic Affinity Groups: data-model comparisons. Global Planet. Change, 61, 28-40, 2008.

FAVRE E., FRANCOIS L., FLUTEAU F., CHEDDADI R., THEVENOD L., SUC J.-P., Messinian vegetation maps of the Mediterranean region using models and interpolated pollen data. Geobios, 40, 433-443, 2007.

FRANCOIS L., GHISLAIN M., OTTO D., MICHEELS A., Late Miocene vegetation reconstruction with the CARAIB model. Palaeogeogr., Palaeoclim., Palaeoecol., 238, 302-320, 2006.

CHEDDADI R., VENDRAMIN G., LITT T., FRANCOIS L., KAGEYAMA M., LORENTZ S., LAURENT J.-M., DE BEAULIEU J.-L., SADORI L., JOST A., LUNT D., Imprints of glacial refugia in the modern genetic diversity of Pinus sylvestris. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 15, 271-282, 2006.

OTTO D., RASSE D., KAPLAN J., WARNANT P., FRANCOIS L., Biospheric carbon stocks reconstructed at the Last Glacial Maximum: comparison between general circulation models using prescribed and computed sea surface temperatures. Global Planet. Change, 33, 117-138, 2002.

FRANCOIS L., DELIRE C., WARNANT P. and MUNHOVEN G., Modelling the glacial-interglacial changes in the continental biosphere. Global Planet. Change, 16-17, 37-52, 1998