About me
Evolutionary ecologist, I am deeply interested in evolution of sexuality and mating system, espacially evolution of pollination in flowering plants. My research focuses on the evolution of the interaction between flowering plants and their pollinators via the evolution of floral traits. During my PhD at the Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive (CEFE) in Montpellier, under the supervision of Pierre-Olivier Cheptou, I was particularly interested in the evolution towards self-fertilisation, its phenotypic consequences and the factors favouring this evolution. My thesis manuscript, partially in french, is available here, and a version roughly translated in english is available upon requests. I am currently postdoctoral researcher in Hileman and Kelly labs. My project is focusing in understanding genetic basis of the change in pollinators, from bumblebees to hummingbirds in my case.
Curriculum vitæ
| 2025–today | Postdoctoral researcher, University of Kansas, USA |
| 2021–2024 | PhD in evolutionary biology and ecology, CEFE, Montpellier, France |
| 2020–2021 | Master in Ecology & Evolution (2nd year), École normale supérieure, Paris |
| 2020 | Agrégé in Life, Earth and Universe Sciences |
| 2019–2020 | Preparation of the Agrégation in Life, Earth and Universe Sciences, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon |
| 2018–2019 | Master in Ecology & Evolution (1st year) École normale supérieure, Paris |
| 2017–2018 | Licence in Biology, École normale supérieure, Paris |
| 2017 | Admission to École normale supérieure, Paris |
| 2015–2017 | Classes préparatoires in Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Earth Sciences, Lycée Carnot, Dijon |
You can find a more detailed version here.
Publications
- Samson Acoca-Pidolle , Perrine Gauthier, Louis Devresse, Virginie Pons, and Pierre-Olivier Cheptou (2024). Ongoing convergent evolution of a selfing syndrome threatens plant-pollinator interactions, New Phytologist 242(2):717-726, DOI: 10.1111/nph.19422 This publication has been featured in news such as The New York Times, The Guardian or El País.
- Allan Raffard, Julien Cucherousset, José M. Montoya, Murielle Richard, Samson Acoca-Pidolle , Camille Poésy, Alexandre Garreau, Frédéric Santoul, and Simon Blanchet (2021). Intraspecific diversity loss in a predator species alters prey community structure and ecosystem functions, PLoS Biology 19(3):e3001145, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001145
Teaching
2021–2024 Teaching assistant (64h per year) and supervision of two master students, University of Montpellier (France)
- Undergraduate practical work: From cells to organisms, Functional ecology, Diversity and evolution of present and past Metazoans
- Preparation of the Agrégation in Life, Earth and Universe Sciences (graduate level): design and evaluation of oral and practical mock tests
Supervision
Supervision of two master students and one undergraduate student during my PhD.
Contact
samson.acoca-pidolle [at] normalesup.org