FREDERIC CHERQUI
Frédéric is Associate Professor at the University Lyon 1 and INSA Lyon, France. He is also Honorary Senior Fellow at The University of Melbourne. He has 15+ years research experience in urban water management, performance assessment, asset management and decision aid methods. He is currently working on asset management of Nature-Based Solutions dedicated to stormwater management, and on the development of low-cost monitoring systems for water infrastructure. Frederic is vice-chair of an international working group dedicated to Urban Drainage Asset Management, and is the co-leader of the Nature-based Solution working group of the Water Europe Association.
France hub team
THIERRY CORREGE
Thierry is the Regional Director of the CNRS Representative Office in Oceania. Before that, he was the Science and Higher Education Attaché for the Embassy of France to Australia during more than 2 years. He has been also Professor of Earth and Marine Sciences at the University of Bordeaux and deputy director of the EPOC (Continental and Oceanic Paleoenvironments and Environments) laboratory (U. Bordeaux/CNRS). He gained a PhD in geology from ANU in 1993, then joined the IRD (French National Research Institute of Sustainable Development) with postings in France, New Caledonia and Australia, before moving on to the University of Bordeaux. He has published more than sixty scientific papers on tropical paleoclimatology and the El Niño phenomenon.
DECIANA SPECKMANN
Deciana is First Secretary at the Australian Embassy in Paris. In this capacity, she works with colleagues and stakeholders to promote collaboration between Australia and France in a range of fields, including science and innovation. Deciana is also Deputy Permanent Delegate of Australia’s Delegation to UNESCO. In this role, she led negotiations for Australia on a UNESCO Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and supported negotiations on a Recommendation on Open Science. Deciana previously worked as a climate change negotiator in the UNFCCC and trade negotiator in APEC, which led to a posting in 2016 to support Peru’s APEC host year. Deciana has Masters degrees from the ANU (international law, business) and the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (communication).
JEAN-FRANCOIS HOCQUETTE
Jean-François is Research Director and Scientific Officer in charge of International Relationships for Australia and New-Zealand of INRAE (the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment). His research interests concern muscle biology, genomics and consumer studies as relevant to muscle growth or beef eating quality. He was leader of the research team “Muscle Growth and Metabolism” (1999-2006), and Director of the Herbivore Research Unit (172 staff, 2006-2010). He has been working for the French High Council for Evaluation of Research and Higher Education (HCERES) from 2012 to 2021. He is now president of the French Association for Animal Production. He was awarded twice by the American Society of Animal Sciences (2014 and 2021). He has organized the World Congress of Animal Science in Lyon in 2023.
