26 October 2026Five new PhD students and one postdoctoral researcher join CEE-M. What research projects will they be working on? What academic and professional paths led them to CEE-M? Here is an introduction to our newest team members and their research.
Humberto BARRERA-JIMENEZ
- Research project: Modelling and simulation of mobility behaviour. As part of his postdoctoral appointment, Humberto will join the POIESIS project, a research initiative conducted in partnership with SNCF to support the development of Metropolitan Regional Express Services (Services Express Régionaux Métropolitains, or SERM) by developing simulation tools and decision-support tools for public authorities. He will work under the supervision of Thierry Blayac (CEE-M) and Mickael Beaud (CEE-M), who are involved in Work Package 1, dedicated to modelling and simulating mobility behaviour.
- Academic and professional background: This appointment follows the completion of his PhD at the Transport, Health and Urban Systems Research Lab at the University of Melbourne, which he defended in June 2026.
Hiroki BUTEL
- PhD project: Designing carbon farming policies: a behavioural approach to farmers’ choices. Conducted as part of the CLIM-FAS project under the PEPR FairCarboN research programme, this PhD focuses on carbon farming, a set of practices designed to increase carbon stocks in agricultural soils and reduce net emissions. The research aims to contribute to the design and improvement of public policies by identifying the barriers to and drivers of the adoption and continued use of these practices, and by evaluating existing incentive schemes, particularly in terms of the role behavioural factors play in farmers’ acceptance of them. Hiroki is supervised by Douadia Bougherara (CEE-M) and Raphaële Préget (CEE-M).
- Academic and professional background: After completing a bachelor’s degree in biology at Université Grenoble Alpes, with a specialisation in soil science at the University of Aberdeen, Hiroki obtained an agricultural engineering degree from Institut Agro Montpellier, specialising in agricultural economics and public policy at Institut Agro Rennes-Angers. He has completed several internships, including one at a Brussels-based think tank working on European agricultural and food policies, and another at Solagro, focusing on farm-level carbon assessments.
Michele DE CARVALHO ANDRADE
- PhD project: The impact of refined carbohydrate consumption on decision-making in young adults. This research is part of the Nexus SENS-ALIM project, which explores the close links between diet and everyday choices by combining nutrition, behavioural economics and evolutionary biology. Michele’s PhD is supervised by Bernard Godelle (ISEM), with Dimitri Dubois (CEE-M) and Claire Berticat (ISEM) as co-supervisors.
- Academic and professional background: After graduating in nutrition in Brazil, Michele worked for the country’s leading nutritional scoring app, helping to promote healthier food choices. She subsequently obtained a master’s degree in Nutrition and Food Sciences, specialising in International Nutrition, from the University of Montpellier.
Ala MESSAOUDI
- PhD project: Economic assessment of the ecosystem services provided by the Bizerte Lagoon, Tunisia. This research aims to identify, classify and assess the economic value of the ecosystem services provided by the Bizerte Lagoon, a strategically important coastal ecosystem facing anthropogenic and climate-related pressures. The PhD is jointly supervised by the University of Tunis El Manar (UTM) and Institut Agro Montpellier and is part of the GELGINTEL project, which focuses on pollution reduction and governance of the Bizerte Lagoon in Tunisia. Ala is supervised by Jean-Michel Salles (CEE-M) and Lamia Mokaddem (University of Tunis).
- Academic and professional background: Ala is an agricultural economist and holds a national engineering degree in rural economics and a research master’s degree in development economics.
Lucas RALAIVAO
- PhD project: Principles and models for balancing water demand in the context of climate change. Lucas’s PhD is supervised by Katrin Erdlenbruch (CEE-M).
- Academic and professional background: Lucas holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Montpellier and a master’s degree in Environmental, Energy and Transport Economics (EEET) from AgroParisTech. His PhD follows several assignments supporting Katrin Erdlenbruch on two research projects. For Water Occitanie, he worked on assessing the costs of drought for the agricultural sector, focusing on a study area in the Pyrénées-Orientales department. For Trajectoire, he processed a questionnaire-based dataset examining coastal residents’ perceptions of the challenges involved in adapting coastal areas to rising sea levels.
Guilhem VERN
- PhD project: Slowing down without giving things up? Diversity, proximity and externalities: an economic analysis of the emergence of slow cities. Supervised by Thierry Blayac (CEE-M) and Hélène Rey-Valette (CEE-M), this research examines the transition from urban planning based on speed and metropolitan concentration to a model centred on proximity and a more balanced pace of life. It challenges the logic of ever-increasing mobility, whereby time savings from faster road travel are reinvested in longer journeys, generating significant negative externalities such as congestion, pollution and rising property prices. The aim is to understand under what conditions urban residents are willing to give up some of the diversity offered by more distant metropolitan areas in exchange for calmer journeys. This could help foster the emergence of the “15-minute city”, in which travel time that is endured becomes time that is meaningfully experienced and contributes to well-being.
- Academic and professional background: Guilhem holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in Energy Economics from the University of Montpellier. Over the past three years, he has also worked as a staff member for a political group at Montpellier City Council.