New positions/internships

Victor Beauvalet joins the HIGH-PASM team !!

Victor Beauvalet holds a Master degree in Geography from the University of Rouen and will work for 18 months as an Engineer to create a database from archive data (disease and maps), explore cartographic recognition tools, harmonise the spatial data from different sources and simulate tests between environmental and social data.

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Engineer (IE) in database and spatial modelling (18 months) – call closed 

As part of the HIGH-PASM project on climate change and social resilience in Cyprus over the last millennium and funded by the National Research Agency (ANR), two field missions and exploration of historical archives were conducted in Cyprus in 2021. During these field missions, historical sources (Ottoman, English and Cypriot institutional reports, travel accounts as well as maps) were identified and natural archives for past climate changes such as speleothems were sampled in caves. The constructed geochemical proxies from speleothems archives covering the last millennium coupled with published meteorological and dendroclimatological data, will provide quantitative data on the evolution of precipitation or temperature.

This project brings together various French and foreign collaborators. You will work more specifically in collaboration with the colleagues from IDEES 6266 CNRS involved in this research program. The main objective of the program is to understand how climate change has or not impacted societies in the Middle East, thus posing a challenge by affecting agricultural production models, the health conditions of populations and the spread of diseases.

Three Work packages (WP) define the framework of the project and the acquisition of data within each WP is multiple, disparate and concerns data of different types. This requires designing, structuring and standardizing a database to help researchers build the data acquired, produced and assembled throughout the project.  You will be based in the UMR 6266 CNRS IDEES laboratory (Identification and Differentiation of Space, Environment and Societies), Mont-Saint Aignan campus of the University of Rouen.

Your work will integrate two research themes of IDEES: the transversal theme “Sources Models, Simulations” which aims to promote the dissemination of data, tools and knowledge in the field of human and social sciences and the theme “Interactions Societies and Environments” which studies the relationships between societies and environments using diachronic, systemic and multiscale approaches.

Objectives and expectations

  • Creation of a statistical database from archive data.
  • Exploration of cartographic recognition tools.
  • Harmonisation of spatial data from different sources.
  • Simulation tests between environmental and social data.

Profile and skills

  • Master degree in Geography
  • Advanced level in geographic information systems (GIS).
  • Knowledge and mastering statistical tools (R, Excel..).
  • Knowledge and mastering spatial simulation tools (Net logo, Gamma, etc.).
  • Basic knowledge in English.
  • Ability to communicate results (reports, oral presentations).
  • Ability to work in a multidisciplinary team.

Salary: full time with a gross salary between 2100 € and 2350 € /month. Job start : 20 -01-2023. Submit your application (cover letter + CV) on the CNRS platform. For more information please contact: carole.nehme@univ-rouen.fr

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Linu Elizabeth Danielkutty joins the HIGH-PASM team !!

We would like to welcome Linu danielkutty in the University of Rouen-Normandy. Holding an undergraduate degree in Geosciences, she obtained a Master degree in Geography from the University of Nice in 2020. She will be working within the WP2 for 3 years on the “Landscapes of disease: epidemiology of malaria and thalassemia in Cyprus”

Bienvenue à Madame Linu danielkutty, inscrite désormais depuis 01-2022 à l’Ecole Doctorale 556 HOMME, SOCIETES, RECHERCHES. Elle est recrutée à l’UMR IDEES 6266 CNRS en qualité de doctorante contractuelle en vue de pré parer un doctorat portant sur l’emergence et la réemergence d’agents pathogènes humains à Chypre au 19e et 20e siècles. Elle travaillera sour la direction de prof. E.Eliot (Université de Rouen-Normandie) et de Dr. I.Charalambidou (Université de Nicosie).

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PhD position 2022-2025 – Landscapes of disease: epidemiology of malaria & thalassemia in Cyprus (call closed)

Project description : the emergence and re-emergence of human pathogens present an opportunity to examine the evolution of pathogens across space and time in relation to interactions between populations and environmental drivers and to understand how human – environment interactions influence pathogenic characteristics.

In Cyprus, malaria was endemic up to 1967 when the island was declared malaria free. Since the end of the 19th century, malaria was a major stake of colonial policy, and especially its eradication. (Shelley, H. and Aziz, M. 1949). Despite recent localized outbreaks (Emms H., 2020), the situation is under control now. Plasmodium, the parasite responsible for malaria, has been a powerful selective agent in the evolution of populations (Nau J-Y., 2008). At the end of the 19th century, malaria was endemic across one-third of the country, where 10% of the population lived, and two million hectares of land was not cultivated because of malaria (Dagen M., 2020).  Hemoglobinopathies are among the most frequent genetic diseases in the world. The link between malaria and alpha-and beta-thalassemia has been an object of scientific controversies since the beginning of the 20th century (Akide-Ndunge OB et al., 2003).

The coincidence between areas endemic to malaria and the protective effect of thalassemia on the severity of malaria infections has been difficult and long to explain (Weatherall., J, 2004). However, in long standing endemic malaria areas, high-thalassemia incidences and prevalences are recorded and seem to have a protective effect on malaria infections among populations. Cyprus reports today the highest prevalence of thalassemia in the world (Kyrri AR et al., 2013). Thalassemia causes the deletion of a gene for the globing protein that makes up hemoglobin. It is responsible for severe anemia in homozygous individuals but benign disorders in heterozygous individuals.

Epidemiological and molecular mechanisms have recently been documented for alpha (Fowkes FJ. Et al., 2008) and beta-thalassemia (Kazazian, H.H. and Boehm, C.D. 1988). Environmental conditions and management impact the clinical severity of bêta-thalassemia (Origa R., 2017) and the phenotype in patients (Musallam K.M. et al. 2013). Understanding the role of environmental factors and landscape changes in the spread of malaria in South Europe has been documented (Sallares R., 2006, during the holocene period, for example) but few studies aim at understanding the relationship between malaria and thalassemia geographical patterns in association with landscape patterns and usages across space and time.

The first epidemiological study on thalassemia in Cyprus was performed in 1946 under British rule. For the past 50 years, Cyprus implements a population prevention programme based on premarital screening (Schwartz-Cowan, R. 2009). Differences in the distribution of mutations of alpha- and bêta- thalassemia across districts of the island are observed (Kontouris P., et al., 2016; Plato, C.C. et al. 1964) but these particular geographical patterns have not been associated with any history of land use.

For the past 15 years, researches in ecology (Manel et al., 2013) and geography (Carrel M. et al., 2013, 2015) have tried to combine methods from population genetics and landscape ecology in order to evaluate «the role of landscape variables in shaping genetic diversity and population structure» (Storfer A., et al., 2007) and «the interacting population and environmental processes allowing disease to persist and/or evolve» (Carrel et al., 2013). Even though merging methods and theories of these two disciplines have to be taken with caution, they may contribute to understanding transformations of disease and landscape patterns in Cyprus.

Focusing on the link between land use, population dynamics, thalassemia and malaria raises methodological problems in terms of data availability and comparability. In Cyprus, data will be researched from archived sources and national epidemiological programs. It will combine data produced and compiled by the colonial health system with more recent data based on genetic information.