Education & training

One of ISEM’s foremost missions is to train future generations of researchers, teachers and experts in evolutionary biology, ecology and biodiversity science through its involvement in initial training (more than 30 lecturers and professors) and training through research (over 85 thesis defences and 320 Master’s trainees hosted in 5 years).

The first postgraduate evolutionary biology and ecology course in Montpellier was launched in 1978 under the leadership of Louis Thaler (founding ISEM member). Since then, through the activity of its numerous lecturers and professors and strongly supported by researchers, ISEM has been substantially involved in higher education at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels, mainly within the University of Montpellier and the Université Paris Sciences Lettres to which the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (EPHE) is affiliated. In the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Montpellier, ISEM members participate in conducting and coordinating courses within the Department of Biology and Ecology, the Department of Earth, Water and Environmental Science, the Department of Computer Science and the Department of Biology and Living Mechanisms. At EPHE, ISEM members participate in conducting and coordinating biology and earth science courses.
The streams in which ISEM members have academic responsibilities and which may lead to research and teaching in ISEM’s key research areas are outlined below, for LMD5 (2021-2026 accreditation).