Hervé Sauquet (group leader)
I am an evolutionary biologist and botanist with a broad interest in macroevolution. A key focus of my current and future research is to unravel and better understand large-scale patterns in the evolution of flowers. Watch: My research in 56 seconds or Live interview at The Calyx Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust webpage
Associate Editor, Frontiers in Plant Science, section Plant Systematics and Evolution (2020-now) Associate Editor, Taxon (2015-now) Editor, International Journal of Plant Sciences (2018-2022) Recommender, Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology (2017-now) Secretary, Australasian Systematic Botany Society (2019-now) Senior Visiting Fellow, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (2019-2022) Associate Professor, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France (Maître de Conférences HDR en détachement; 2017-2022) |
2019-now, Senior Research Scientist (Systematic Botanist), Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, Sydney, Australia
2017-2019, Research Scientist (Systematic Botanist), Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, Sydney, Australia
2014-2017, Associate Professor, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France
2014, Habilitation à Diriger les Recherches (HDR), Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France
2009-2014, Assistant Professor, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France
2008-2009, Lecturer, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France
2006-2008, Marie Curie Outgoing International Fellow (postdoc), Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, Sydney, Australia, and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom
2004-2006, Postdoc, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden
1999-2003, PhD, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France
2017-2019, Research Scientist (Systematic Botanist), Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, Sydney, Australia
2014-2017, Associate Professor, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France
2014, Habilitation à Diriger les Recherches (HDR), Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France
2009-2014, Assistant Professor, Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France
2008-2009, Lecturer, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France
2006-2008, Marie Curie Outgoing International Fellow (postdoc), Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust, Sydney, Australia, and Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom
2004-2006, Postdoc, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden
1999-2003, PhD, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France
Current lab members (Royal Botanic Garden Sydney)
![]() Ruby Stephens (Master's student, 2020-2021)
Ruby is doing her Master's on the functional biogeography of floral traits in Australia, co-supervised with Rachael Gallagher. Ruby is based at Macquarie University. |
![]() Yasmin Asar (Honours student, 2020)
Yasmin is doing her Honours on the correlation of morphological and molecular evolutionary rates in flowering plants, co-supervised with Simon Ho. Yasmin shares her time between the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney and the University of Sydney. |
![]() Andrea López Martínez (PhD student, 2019-2023)
Andrea is doing her PhD on the phylogenetic placement of fossil flowers in angiosperms, co-supervised with Susana Magallón. Andrea is based at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City, Mexico. |
![]() Nathan Langlais (research intern, 2020)
Nathan did a research internship with us at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney in early 2020 during a gap year. He helped with the Minimum Trait Set project an dthe PROTEUS database. |
Previous lab members (Université Paris-Sud)
![]() Qian Zhang (PhD student, 2015-2019)
Qian did his PhD on the evolution of dioecy in Moraceae, funded by the China Scholarship Council. He is now a postdoc at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China. |
![]() Elisabeth Reyes (PhD student, 2013-2016; MSc student, 2012-2013)
Elisabeth did her PhD on floral key innovations in the angiosperms, co-supervised by Sophie Nadot (Université Paris-Sud). Her research as a master's student focused on Proteaceae diversification rates and floral symmetry. University webpage |
![]() Renske Onstein (postdoc, 2015-2016)
Renske did a postdoc on the evolution of frugivory in Annonaceae, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. She is now a junior research group leader at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) in Leipzig, Germany. Personal website |
![]() Stefan Little (postdoc, 2014-2016)
Stefan worked on the floral transcriptomes of Magnoliidae, in the context of project MAGNIPHY. He is now a Visiting Assistant Professor at Ohio University. University webpage |
![]() Laetitia Carrive (PhD student, 2014-2016; MSc student, 2013-2014)
Laetitia started a PhD on diversification and floral evolution in Annonaceae (Magnoliidae), co-supervised by Thomas Couvreur, interrupted for medical reasons. Her research as a master's student in our group focused on Magnoliidae. University webpage |
![]() Julien Massoni (2010-2014)
Julien did his PhD on the large flowering plant clade Magnoliidae, combining phylogenetic and molecular dating methods to reconstruct the history of floral diversification in the group. He is now doing a postdoc at ETH in Zurich. Personal website |
Frequent visitors (main collaborators)
![]() Maria von Balthazar
Maria is a key partner in the eFLOWER initiative and visited our lab in 2013. Maria is a Senior Scientist and specialist of floral morphology and development at the University of Vienna. University webpage |
![]() Susana Magallón
Susana is a key collaborator on several ongoing projects linked to the eFLOWER initiative. She visited our lab in 2014 and 2015. Susana is a Professor at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City. University webpage |
![]() Jürg Schönenberger
Jürg is our main partner in the eFLOWER initiative and has been visiting our lab frequently since 2013. Jürg's and Hervé's groups also collaborate on the MAGNIPHY, Proteaceae, and MORPHOSPACE projects. Jürg is a Professor at the University of Vienna, Austria. University webpage |
![]() Thomas Couvreur
Thomas is a key collaborator in the MAGNIPHY project and has been visiting our lab frequently since 2011. Thomas is a Researcher at IRD in Montpellier. Personal website |

Peter Weston
Peter Weston is a key collaborator in our projects on floral evolution of Proteaceae. He visited our lab in Sep-Oct 2015, funded by a Winston Churchill Fellowship. Peter is an Honorary Research Associate at the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust in Sydney, Australia.
Webpage
Peter Weston is a key collaborator in our projects on floral evolution of Proteaceae. He visited our lab in Sep-Oct 2015, funded by a Winston Churchill Fellowship. Peter is an Honorary Research Associate at the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust in Sydney, Australia.
Webpage