2026 Thesis Prize : Manon Lorcery Awarded the Interdisciplinary Thesis Prize

The candidates had been pre-selected by the thirteen doctoral schools of Université Grenoble Alpes from among the 640 PhD graduates of 2025. The thesis prize juries for the Innovation Awards and the Academic Excellence Awards were held on May 4 and May 6, respectively. The prizes will be officially presented during the “Doctors’ Ceremony” on June 9, 2026, starting at 5:00 p.m.

Université Grenoble Alpes has thus recognized thirteen PhD graduates from the class of 2025 whose doctoral work was deemed to be of exceptional quality. These awards acknowledge the excellence of the research carried out by these young scientists within their respective laboratories.

The thesis awards recognize :

• 7 Academic Thesis Prizes for excellence within each disciplinary field, represented by the doctoral schools and research clusters of the site ;
• 3 Interdisciplinary Academic Thesis Prizes for research work that promotes openness and spans at least two significantly different doctoral specialties ;
• 2 Innovation Thesis Prizes, which also include a valorization and transfer approach toward society, both from a technological and social perspective ;
• 1 Ecological Transformation Thesis Prize for a thesis that makes an exemplary contribution to ecological transformation, understood as the set of social, economic, technological, cultural, and environmental changes required for a sustainable society that respects planetary boundaries.

As every year, candidates are evaluated primarily on the scientific excellence of the thesis, their ability to present their work clearly and concisely, the interest and scientific impact for the discipline, and where applicable, the quality of scientific output produced during the PhD. Additional criteria are applied depending on the type of award : interdisciplinary, innovation, or ecological transformation.

Hotspots and evolutionary strategies

At the regional scale, the richness of biodiversity “hotspots” is explained by the specific history of their landscapes. While stability promotes survival, it is dynamic landscapes, such as forming mountain ranges and complex river networks, that drive the emergence of new species.

Manon’s thesis also highlights the importance of species-level strategies : while “generalist” species dominate globally due to their ecological tolerance, “specialist” species, adapted to very specific mountainous or climatic conditions, are the true foundations of regional biodiversity.

An integrative view of the Earth–life system

Interdisciplinarity is at the very core of Manon’s research. Rather than simply juxtaposing fields, her thesis achieves a true integration of Earth sciences (climatology, geodynamics, geomorphology) and life sciences (ecology, evolutionary biology).

Physical transformations of the Earth’s surface are no longer treated as external variables, but as dynamic drivers coupled with living systems. This “Humboldtian” approach goes beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries to model an Earth–life system in which geology and biology explicitly interact to produce the biological complexity we observe today.