Catherine Linard has been awarded the Francqui-Collen Research Professorship for her research on the spread of infectious diseases

Why do certain infectious diseases pose a greater risk in some regions than in others? What role do urbanization, climate change, and population movements play in their spread? These are the kinds of questions that interest Catherine Linard, a researcher in the Department of Geography at UNamur. 

A geographer by training, she works in the field of health geography, which studies the relationship between health and place. “I study health, but through the eyes of a geographer. I’m primarily interested in the landscape, and I try to understand the natural and social processes that shape health in a given place.”

Her research focuses specifically on vector-borne diseases—that is, diseases transmitted by organisms such as mosquitoes. These include, in particular, malaria and dengue fever. To better understand their geographic distribution, the researcher analyzes various factors that may influence their transmission. The environment obviously plays a role, since it determines, in particular, where mosquitoes can breed, but it is not enough on its own to explain the spread of a disease. 

 “I take a fairly systemic approach. We’ll look at the environment, but also at human behavior, mobility, and so on.” Part of her research thus focuses on the impact of rapid changes in our environments—such as the rapid urbanization of the African continent—on mosquito-borne diseases. 

 This work has now received significant recognition. Starting in September, Catherine Linard will hold a three-year grant from the Francqui Foundation. Her proposal was first selected by the UNamur Research Council before being approved by the Foundation. 

This appointment will allow the researcher to be relieved of most of her teaching duties so she can devote more time to her research. This is a particularly valuable opportunity given that her daily academic life is divided between teaching, supervising researchers and doctoral students, conducting research, and handling administrative tasks. 

However, there are no plans yet to establish a specific schedule for the next three years. Catherine Linard first wants to take advantage of this newfound availability to devote more time to her ongoing projects and to mentor several doctoral students who are nearing the completion of their dissertations.

The appointment should also enable her to strengthen her international collaborations. In particular, the researcher works with Cheick Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal, and plans to use these three years to deepen these exchanges and organize new fieldwork trips. In the longer term, she hopes above all to find time to explore new avenues and determine the future direction of her research. “Research is advancing at a breakneck pace. To stay abreast of everything happening in our field, we need to keep reading and following the work of other teams.” 

Catherine Linard also sees the Francqui Prize as recognition of the work she has carried out with her team and her many collaborators. She also sees it as recognition for the field of health geography, a discipline long overlooked by the general public, but whose importance was particularly highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic, when understanding the geographic spread of an epidemic became a particularly critical issue. “I believe it is also recognition of the relevance of this research to society, of its ability to shed light on major and highly topical societal issues, as well as of the value of a resolutely interdisciplinary project.”