Professor Sylvie de Blois received a PhD in biology from the Université de Montreal in 2001. She is an Associate Professor of ecology at the Department of Plant Science and the School of Environment of McGill University. She is also the Director of the McGill School of Environment, an interdisciplinary unit involving Science, Arts, Agricultural and Environmental Science, Law, and Management at McGill. She was an invited scientist at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia and at the engineering School ‘École des Mines de Nantes’ in France. She is a member of the Quebec Center for Biodiversity Science and of the Ecological Society of America, and a scientific advisor on the European funded programme AGREENSKILLS aimed at supporting the international mobility of emergent researchers. Her research focuses on plant ecology, landscape ecology, climate change, biological invasion, and biodiversity science. She has co-authored an award-winning book on the impact of climate change on Quebec biodiversity.

 Professor deBlois's research investigates the interrelations between the environment, landscape structure, and key biological processes that determine plant population and community persistence. It aims to develop an understanding of these interrelations from local to sub-continental scales, combining concepts and approaches from plant biology, landscape ecology, invasion ecology, and global change biology. Findings are relevant for biodiversity conservation both within and outside nature reserves, corridor function, species migration, range dynamics, the control of invasive plants, and sustainable forest and agricultural landscape management.