Keynote speakers
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Jan Christian Habel, Ellen Decaestecker, Ruben Evens
Jan Christian Habel is a Full Professor in the Department of Environment and Biodiversity at the Paris Lodron University of Salzburg (Austria), where he leads the Evolutionary Zoology research group. He earned his Ph.D. in 2006 from the University of Lüneburg (Germany) with a dissertation on population genetics, awarded summa cum laude and honored with the Advancement Award of Trier University in 2007.
Together with his team, Jan’s research spans evolutionary and conservation biology, focusing on how animals—primarily insects and birds—respond to environmental change and stress. The overarching goal is to better predict future trends at both individual and community level. By integrating contemporary and historical data, the group addresses a central question: How are intraspecific traits shaped by past and present environmental conditions? To tackle this, Jan applies a broad range of methods, from telemetry to molecular genetics, across diverse ecosystems including urban areas, mountain landscapes, and tropical regions. Some of his main topics include the biological value of relic species, biodiversity hotspots in global change and the existence of areas as refuges for thermophilic species.
Ellen Decaestecker is full professor at the Biology Department of KU Leuven and chair of the Interdisciplinary Research Facility Life Sciences at campus Kortijk. During her PhD and postdoc research (KULeuven, Basel University CH and Edinburgh University UK), she focused on host-pathogen interactions in long-term coevolutionary reconstruction experiments. She broadened that research line and currently her MicrobiomeEcoEvo group studies host-microbiome interactions in stressful environments. They study microbiome community responses and functional genomics in the context of polluted environments (microplastics, antibiotics, toxic cyanobacteria, hypoxia, persistent organic pollutants) with a focus on how microbiomes modify host phenotypes. They study these interactions within a One Health framework with multiple host models from freshwater ecosystems (waterfleas, damselflies, snails) up to marine mammals (seals, killer whales) and primates (lemurs, human).
Ellen is ex-president of the Royal Belgian Zoological Society and ex-secretary of ESEB (European Society of Evolutionary Biology). She hosts the next joint ESEB congress with the American Evolutionary Societies in Gent in 2029. All welcome!
Ruben Evens is assistant professor at UCLouvain and head of the Nox’alis research group, which focuses on terrestrial ecology and biodiversity conservation. His research examines how individual behavior responds to changes in natural and artificial light, particularly skyglow, and its ecological consequences.
Ruben has held positions at the Swiss Ornithological Institute, the Max Planck Institute of Biological Intelligence (Seewiesen), and the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) at the University of Antwerp. As an early-career researcher, he has received several distinctions, including the Best Manuscript Award in IBIS and a recommendation by the Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België voor Wetenschap en Kunsten for excellence in scientific communication.
His work spans behavioral ecology and conservation, with a strong focus on crepuscular species such as nightjars. Ruben is a member of the Global Nightjar Network and leads projects across Africa studying the behavior of African nightjars. Recent publications include “Skyglow relieves a crepuscular insectivore from visual constraints on being active” (Science of the Total Environment, 2023) and Creemers et al. (2025): “Skyglow facilitates prey detection in a crepuscular insectivore” (Environmental Pollution). These studies highlight how artificial light alters ecological interactions and species activity patterns.
Through his research and collaborations, Ruben aims to advance understanding of light pollution impacts and inform conservation strategies for nocturnal and crepuscular wildlife.