Meet Dr. Katrine Turgeon (Lab PI)

Dr. Katrine Turgeon is Professor in the Department of Natural Sciences, Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO).

She obtained her PhD in ecology from McGill University. She worked for the government (Environment and Climate Changes Canada; ECCC) and the industry (Hydro-Québec) before moving to UQO in 2018. Since 2023, she holds a Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in socio-ecology of conservation.

She works (or worked) on a variety of systems, including coral reefs, Great Lakes, reservoirs, lakes, rivers and streams.

She LOVES watersports and scuba diving, snowboarding in the winter and camping with her family.

Her Bio

I did my BSc in biology at U. of Sherbrooke. During one of my research internship, I discovered a new passion for fish and aquatic ecology.

BSc - U. Sherbrooke

MSc - UQTR

This new passion for aquatic ecology brought me to start a MSc at UQTR under the supervision of Dr. Marco Rodriguez. I studied habitat selection in juvenile Atlantic salmon is small streams of Gaspesia.

After my MSc, I worked two years for Environment Climate Change Canada (ECCC) where we modeled the distribution of wetlands and macrophytes in the Saint-Lawrence River system.

Work - ECCC

PhD - McGill U.

I was missing academia… so I started a PhD at McGill under the supervision of Donald Kramer on coral reef fish density-dependent movement. I did my field work in Barbados.

After the PhD, I started a postdoc at the U. of Guelph on fisheries socio-complexity, and I also ran some experiments in the Limnotron (24 000L mesocosms) to test the effect of nutrients on planckton dynamics.

Postdoc - U. of Guelph

I did a second postdoc at McGill U. under the supervision of Irene Gregory-Eaves. For this postdoc, I examined the impacts dams and drawdown in reservoirs on biodiversity. Sepaq and Hydro-Québec were partners.

Postdoc - McGill U.

Work - Hydro-Québec

After the postdoc, I worked two years for Hydro-Québec where I developed indicators to measure the ecological footprint of hydropower using the Life Cycle Approach (LCA).

In 2018, I landed a tenure-track position at UQO. In 2023, I accepted a Canadian Research Chair (Tier 2) in socio-ecology of conservation. Now, let’s work together to better protect our biodiversity!

Prof - UQO