Alexandre Heeren, PhD

Lab Director

Alexandre Heeren, Ph.D.

Hometown: Thorembais-Saint-Trond, Belgium

Alexandre Heeren, Ph.D., is a Research Professor and FNRS Research Associate (tenured research fellowship from the F.R.S.-FNRS Belgian National Science Foundation) at the Psychological Science Research Institute of UCLouvain, Belgium, where he heads the Stress and Anxiety Research Lab.

Dr. Heeren's research focuses on the cognitive and affective processes involved in anxiety and related psychopathology. He has (co)authored more than 100 publications in international peer-review journals, including several first-author papers in top-tier journals in the field (e.g., Clinical Psychology Review; Journal of Anxiety Disorders). His track record also includes books, book chapters, and articles specifically dedicated to practitioners. He is currently Associate Editor of Journal of Anxiety Disorders.

Dr. Heeren has been the recipient of several research grants, fellowships, and awards. In recognition of his early career contributions to the study of stress and anxiety, he received the 2020 STAR Early Career Award from the Stress, Trauma, Anxiety, and Resilience Society (STAR). According to the PLOS Biology 2020 ranking of top scientists (and in the 2023-update of this ranking), he is among the top 2% scientists based on impact (subfields: “Clinical Psychology”).

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Current group members (by alphabetical order)

M. Annelise Blanchard, PhD - Postdoctoral Fellow

Hometowns: New Orleans, LA, USA & Soignies, Belgium

M. Annelise Blanchard holds a BS in Psychology and Gender Studies from Tulane University in New Orleans, LA, USA, and a MA in Psychology: Theory and Research from KULeuven. In March 2024, she completed her PhD in Psychological Sciences at UCLouvain, under the supervision of Prof. A. Heeren. Annelise's research focuses on the methodologies used to study emotional experiences, especially stress and burnout, including within family systems, as well as techniques for intensive longitudinal data collection and modeling. Since Fall 2024, she has been a FNRS postdoctoral research fellow jointly supervised by Prof. Alexandre Heeren at UCLouvain and Prof. Eva Ceulemans at KULeuven. Her current research explores conceptual and methodological approaches to the temporal dynamics of emotions, especially focusing on how emotions change--or stagnate (i.e., inertia)--over time. Annelise has received several awards and fellowships throughout her career. She can be reached at marie.blanchard@uclouvain.be.

Nathalie Castaigne - Predoctoral researcher

Hometown: Wavre, Belgium

Nathalie is a predoctoral researcher in Psychological Sciences who has previously completed two Master's programs at UCLouvain. The first Master's program, earned in 2022, was in Psychological Sciences, where she specialized in Clinical Psychology. The second, obtained in 2024, was in Philosophy with a focus on didactics. In addition to her Master's degrees, Nathalie holds a degree in teaching methods (the "Agrégation de l'enseignement secondaire supérieur"), which qualifies her to teach at the senior secondary school level. She has gained experience by teaching philosophy to senior high school students for a year. In her research, Nathalie aims to identify and characterize various types of self and collective narratives, along with mental time travel strategies—such as future anticipations—in relation to climate anxiety, particularly in young adults aged 18 to 25. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, she seeks to develop cognitive and behavioral interventions based on mental time travel strategies. These interventions are designed to help young adults envision their futures and foster hope, which can combat climate-induced despair while encouraging pro-environmental behaviors for climate change mitigation and adaptation. She can be contacted at n.castaigne@uclouvain.be.

Yoann Durand - PhD student

Hometown: Dijon, France

Yoann Durand is a Ph.D. student in Psychological Sciences [2024-2028: Promotor: C. Sénémeaud (University of Caen Normandie, France) & Co-promotor: A. Heeren (UCLouvain)]. Yoann graduated from the University of Grenoble Alpes (France) in 2023 with an MA. in Psychological Sciences. His current research focuses on the development of CBT-based strategies, based on appraisal models of controllability, uncertainty, and agency, to prevent dysfunctional fear and anxiety as well as vasovagal syncope during blood collection. Yoann's fellowship is supported by "Établissement Français du Sang (50%) & the Normandy Region of France (50%). Yoann can be reached at yoann.durand@unicaen.fr.

Loïs Fournier - PhD student

Hometown: Nendaz, Switzerland

Loïs Fournier is a Ph.D. student in Psychological Sciences [2022-2026: Promotor: J. Billieux (University of Lausanne) & Co-promotor: A. Heeren]. He graduated from the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) in 2021 with an M.Sc. in Clinical Psychology. His current research focuses on the application of network analysis to examine how psychological constructs (e.g., impulsive behaviors, behavioral addictions) are conceptualized by their corresponding psychometric instruments. He is particularly interested in the development and evaluation of psychometric instruments, and in promoting best practices in psychometrics. Loïs Fournier is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). He can be reached at lois.fournier@unil.ch.

Doris Lacassagne - PhD student

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Hometown: Houyet, Belgium

Doris is a Ph.D student in Psychological Sciences (2022 – 2026), working under the supervision of Prof. Alexandre Heeren (UCLouvain) and Prof. Eva Ceulemans (KULeuven).

She graduated in Psychological Sciences (research track) from UCLouvain

She is a member of the EOS TRIAD consortium, and her project focuses on the elucidation of the temporal dynamics of resilience in family systems, via intensive longitudinal research methods. She can be reached at doris.lacassagne@uclouvain.be.

Mariah Matar - PhD student

Hometown: Beyrouth, Lebanon

Mariah is a Ph.D student in Psychological Sciences (2022 – 2026) and a member of the EOS TRIAD consortium. She holds a BA from the American University of Beirut, where she studied Psychology and premedical sciences, and an MA in Research Psychology from UCLouvain. Mariah is interested in how cognition, emotion, and behavior influence adaptation, with a specific focus on attentional processes. In her current research, she uses mobile eye tracking to explore the relationship between eye gaze synchrony and stress resilience in family triads. She can be reached at mariah.matar@uclouvain.be.

Camille Mouguiama-Daouda - PhD student

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Hometown: Libreville, Gabon

Camille is a Ph.D. student in Psychological Sciences. He graduated from the University of Poitiers, France, in 2019 with an MSc in both Clinical and Research Psychology. His main research agenda focuses on understanding the psychological mechanisms of climate change anxiety. He is particularly interested in studying the potential roles of intolerance of uncertainty and future anticipations in the onset and maintenance of climate change anxiety. He also interested in network approaches to mental health, as well as psychometrics. His work is supported by a Fellowship from the Gabonese National Research Agency and a doctoral Fellowship from UCLouvain. He can be reached at camille.mouguiama@uclouvain.be

Research assistants and interns

Hometowns: Chimay, Belgium

Sarah Brisbois is a Master's (2022 - 2025) student in Biomedical Sciences (Track: neuroscience) from UCLouvain. Her work in the lab focuses on assisting Camille Mouguiama Daouda's research on using eye-tracking technology to unravel the role of visual attentional capture and maintenance toward climate-related stimuli in the adaptative versus maladaptive nature of climate anxiety. Aside from this project, Sarah is also interested in the role of visual attention in anxiety and related phenomena. She can be reached at s arah.brisbois@student.uclouvain.be.