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, he is among the top 5% scientists based on impact (subfields: “Clinical Psychology” & “Psychiatry”).

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Postdoctoral researcher

Clara Della Libera, Ph.D.

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Hometown: Liège, Belgium

Clara Della Libera is a postdoctoral researcher. She first completed a Master's program in Clinical Psychology (2016) and then obtained a PhD in Psychological Sciences (2021) at the University of Liège. She was also trained as a CBT therapist. Her initial research focused on developing 360-degree video-based immersive tools for assessing and intervening in psychotic disorders, anxiety disorders, and addiction. She has also been active in developing new therapeutic protocols targeting motivational and affective processes and resilience in diverse clinical contexts, including, among others, climate-related distress, schizophrenia, and anxiety disorders. In the STAR lab, she is part of the TRIAD Resilience project (www.triadic-resilience-eos.be) and focuses on the neurocognitive and affective mechanisms of resilience transmission within families.

She can be reached at clara.dellalibera@uclouvain.be

Ph.D Students (by alphabetical order)

Marie-Annelise Blanchard

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

Annelise is a Ph.D. student in Psychological Sciences. After a BS in Psychology & Gender Studies at Tulane University (New Orleans, LA, USA), she graduated from KU Leuven in 2019 with an MA in Research Psychology. She is interested in family systems, as well how methodological choices and statistical analyses can be best utilized to examine research questions. Her current research involves investigating the family context and subjective experience of parental burnout, occurring when parents chronically lack the resources needed to cope with their specific parenting-related stressors. She does this through collecting intensive longitudinal data on parents’ daily experiences and attempting to disentangle the temporal dynamics, using methods such as network analyses. She received the 2020 Student Development Award from the Stress, Trauma, Anxiety, and Resilience Society (STAR) for her first publication on parental burnout. Her work is supported by a Research Fellowship from the F.R.S-FNRS Belgian National Science Foundation. 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

Hometown: Bonheiden, Belgium

Yorgo is a Ph.D. student in Psychological Sciences. He graduated from UCLouvain in 2018 with an MA in Clinical Psychology. 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 is also interested in the use of transcranial Direct Current stimulation as a tool to target the neurocognitive processes assumedly involved in anxiety and related psychopathology. His work is supported by a Doctoral Fellowship from UCLouvain. 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). 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. in addition to the STAR Lab, she is also a member of the TRIAD RESILIENCE consortium funded by the Excellence of Science funding scheme (FWO/FNRS). 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). She graduated from UCLouvain in 2022 with an MA in Research Psychology. She is interested in evolutionary theories of psychopathology. A militant against reductionism and nosography, her work focuses on studying how certain psychopathological processes may have positive outcomes. During her internship, she will design studies applying Signal Detection Theory to test the adaptive value of anxiety in the context of climate change. She can be reached at mariah.matar@uclouvain.be.

Camille Mouguiama-Daouda

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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, attentional bias, and top-down attention control in the onset and maintenance of climate change anxiety. Camille is also interested in psychological research methods, and especially in measurement tools adaptation and development. 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