Christopher

CARCAILLET

Prof. Chris Carcaillet is, from Septembre 2026, diplomat at the Embassy of France in Cotonou, Benin, as Attaché for Scientific and University Cooperation.

He is Professor at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE, Paris) since 2001, membre of the Dept of Life and Earth sciences, and honorary professor at the PSL University from 2014.

Chris Carcaillet graduated in Agronomy (1985), a Bachelor in Biology (1988) and a Technical Master in Land Management Engineering from the Univ. of Rennes 1 (France, 1992), a PhD in Ecology from Aix-Marseille University (France, 1996), and a Habilitation from the University Paul Sabatier (Toulouse, France, 2001). He was post-doctoral scientist at the Dept of Geography of the Univ. of Montréal, Canada (1997-98), at the Univ. of Québec at Montréal (1999) and, research fellow at the Swedish Univ. of Agricultural Sciences (Umea, 1999-2001). 

In 2022, Chris was elected By-Fellow of Churchill College and associated in 2023 to the Department of Plant Sciences, University of Cambridge. 

He was Director of the Center for Bio-Archaeology and Ecology (CNRS, EPHE & Univ. of Montpellier, France) from 2003 to 2010. In 2007, he founded the Paleoenvironments and Chronoecology lab (EPHE, France). He has been associated professor at the Dept of Biology of the Univ. of Québec at Montréal from 2011 to 2014, where he was visiting researcher at the Center for Forest Studies in 2011-2012. From 2010 to 2014, he was head of the joint international research lab MONTABOR (CNRS & Univ. of Quebec). Chris Carcaillet is researcher at the Lab for Ecology of Natural and Anthropic Hydrosystems (LEHNA) at the University of Lyon, France.

Christopher Carcaillet studies the influence of climate and social processes on the spatiotemporal structuring of plant and microbial communities and ecosystems. His research focuses primarily on the ecology of past wildfires in relation to climate change and biodiversity dynamics across boreal, mountain, Mediterranean, and tropical areas. He also investigates the function of wildfires on the global carbon balance, particularly regarding carbon release into the atmosphere and the long-term sequestration of black carbon in soils. He proposes nature-based solutions as an approach to forest system engineering.

Chris is Associated Editor for several journals: Annals of Forest Science, Ecoscience, Ecosphere, Plant Ecology. He is editorial board member of Forest Ecology and management.