Christine Cocquyt was a senior scientific researcher at Meise Botanic Garden from 2006 until her retirement in 2020. She remains connected to this institution and to the Ghent University as scientific collaborator. Between 2011 and 2020 she was responsible for a course and training in phycology at the University of Kisangani (DR Congo) as part of a VLIR-UOS project.
She is a fellow member of the Royal Academy of Overseas Sciences (RAOS), and member of several national and international associations. In 2012, she received the De Wildeman award for Tropical Botany from the Royal Belgian Society of Botany.
Her experience abroad includes a stay of 11 years in Burundi, and the participation in numerous scientific expeditions among others on Lake Tanganyika, and in D.R. Congo, Kenya and Uganda. She is involved in several research projects in tropical Africa that fall within the domains of biodiversity, ecology and paleoecology. Her research focuses on diatom taxonomy and phytoplankton. Christine Cocquyt is the author or co-author of more than 100 scientific papers and 3 books.
Key publications
van Bree L.G.J., Peterse F., van der Meer M.T.J., Middelburg J.J., Negash A.M.D, De Crop W., Cocquyt C., Wieringa J.J., Verschuren D. & Sinninghe Damsté J.S. (2018) Seasonal variability in the abundance and stable carbon-isotopic composition of lipid biomarkers in suspended particulate matter from a stratified equatorial lake (Lake Chala, Kenya/Tanzania): Implications for the sedimentary record. Quaternary Science Reviews 192: 208-224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.05.023
Taylor J.C. & Cocquyt C. (2016) Diatoms from the Congo and Zambezi Basins – Methodologies and identification of the genera. ABC Taxa 16: 364 pp.
Kröpelin S., Verschuren D., Lézine A.-M., Eggermont H., Cocquyt C., Francus P., Cazet J.-P., Fagot M., Rumes B., Russell J.M., Darius F., Conley D.J., Schuster M., von Suchodoletz H. & Engstrom D.R. (2008) Climate-driven ecosystem succession in the Sahara: the last 6000 years. Science: 320 (5877): 765-768. https://doi.or/10.1126/science.1154913
Bellinger, B.J., C. Cocquyt & C.M. O’Reilly (2006). Benthic diatoms as indicators of eutrophication in tropical streams. Hydrobiologia 573: 75-87. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-006-0262-5
Cocquyt, C. (1998). Diatoms from the northern basin of Lake Tanganyika. Bibliotheca Diatomologica 39: 276 pp.