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 (IF=13.71).

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)

Postdocs and PhD students

M. Annelise Blanchard, PhD

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

M. Annelise Blanchard received a BS in Psychology & Gender Studies from Tulane University (New Orleans, LA, USA) and a MA in Psychology: Theory and Research from KULeuven. In March 2024, she received a PhD in psychological sciences from UCLouvain, under the supervision of Prof. A. Heeren. Annelise's research centers on research methods for the study of emotional experiences, particularly stress and burnout in family systems, as well as methods of intensive longitudinal data collection and analysis. She has been the recipient of several awards and fellowships. She can be reached at marie.blanchard@uclouvain.be.

Loïs Fournier

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.

Yorgo Hoebeke, PhD

Hometown: Bonheiden, Belgium

Yorgo is a Ph.D. student in Psychological Sciences. He graduated from UCLouvain in 2018 with an MA in Clinical Psychology. In April 2024, he received a PhD in psychological sciences from UCLouvain, under the supervision of Prof. A. Heeren. His research focuses on the application of network analysis to capture the complex dynamic interplay between transdiagnostic processes that are assumed to be involved in the maintenance of anxiety and related psychopathology, and especially top-down attention control and rumination. He can be reached at yorgo.hoebeke@uclouvain.be

Doris Lacassagne

Hometown: Houyet, Belgium

Doris is a Ph.D student in Psychological Sciences (2022 – 2026: Promotor: Prof. Alexandre Heeren (UClouvain); Co-promotor: Prof. Eva Ceulemans (KULeuven), and a member of the EOS TRIAD consortium She graduated from UCLouvain in 2022 with an MA in Research Psychology. Her research focuses on the synchronization and transmission and of stress resilience within a family triad (mother, father and child) in daily life. To do so, she relies upon statistical tools from intensive time-series data research. She is also interested in research methods and statistical analysis. She can be reached at doris.lacassagne@uclouvain.be.

Mariah Matar

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

Capture d’écran 2020-11-23 à 11.08.23.pn

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, attentional bias, and future anticipations in the onset and maintenance of climate change anxiety. 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

Sarah Brisbois

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 sarah.brisbois@student.uclouvain.be.