Through the «Éclaireuses» exhibition, the IRD is celebrating female scientists from the southern shore of the Mediterranean, Africa, Latin America and Asia, and highlighting the diversity of career paths and roles in research. Sonia Chaabane, an IRD research fellow at CEREGE, is one of the scientists whose career and work are featured as part of this initiative.
Sonia Chaabane is ecologist and micropalaeontologist at the French National Research Institute for Development (IRD), at CEREGE in Aix-en-Provence. His research focuses on the plankton’s response to global changes, in particular to ocean warming, acidification and deoxygenation. It draws in particular on the planktonic foraminifera, microscopic calcifying organisms that are sensitive to changes in their environment, in order to understand how marine ecosystems have evolved in the past, are reorganising themselves today, and might respond to future environmental changes.
His work combines ecology, global databases, geochemistry, imaging and artificial intelligence in order to study biological responses across different spatial and temporal scales. In particular, it contributes to the development and use of large international databases, such as FORCIS, with the aim of transforming scattered observations into an integrated view of changes in marine biodiversity and of better detecting, quantifying and anticipating biological responses to global change.
A significant part of his research focuses on tropical regions and marine ecosystems in the Global South, which are particularly vulnerable to rapid changes in the ocean. It carries out research and collaborates on Africa and other tropical regions of the world, particularly around upwelling systems. These environments, which are among the most dynamic in the ocean, provide ideal natural laboratories for understanding the interactions between environmental variability, climate change and the functioning of marine ecosystems.
As well as her research work, she is deeply committed to open science, training, capacity-building and the development of sustainable scientific collaborations between the North and the South.
A female scientist’s career in the spotlight
By selecting Sonia Chaabane as one of the «Éclaireuses», the IRD is highlighting her career, her scientific contributions and her commitment to research. Her illustrated profile thus joins a series of profiles dedicated to female scientists from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines, with the aim, in particular, of encouraging young girls and women to consider a career in science.
Read the profile of Sonia Chaabane
Find out more about the IRD’s «Éclaireuses» project
A scientific training programme in Senegal
The IRD also highlights one of the training and scientific cooperation initiatives led by Sonia Chaabane in Senegal: the MAFE summer school – Advanced Methodologies for the Analysis of Foraminifera and the Senegalese Coastal Environment, organised in Dakar in July 2026 with several Senegalese and French scientific partners, notably UCAD, CEREGE, LOPS and LOCEAN.
Aimed at young scientists, this school combines lectures, practical work, field trips and innovative approaches to the observation of marine life. In particular, it covers the study of plankton and marine microorganisms, automated imaging, artificial intelligence applied to the identification of organisms, and the characterisation of environmental conditions.
As well as passing on methods and expertise, MAFE aims to to promote scientific exchange, to strengthen local expertise and forge lasting partnerships centred on the study of tropical marine ecosystems. This initiative is also supported by the laboratory BISSAP UCAD in Dakar, with a view to developing local capacity for plankton observation and analysis.
