Digital publication of Professor Franck Courchamp’s opening lecture

Franck Courchamp

The paradoxes of biodiversity

Home to thousands of species that interact with one another and with the environment, biodiversity harbours a fascinating complexity. Even when systems appear simple, or interactions seem logical, this often subtle complexity reveals surprising paradoxes. Drawing on examples of work that have marked his career, Franck Courchamp moves from one paradox to the next to illustrate the full complexity of biodiversity and Ecosystems, as well as the need for a holistic approach to ecology. Complexity, paradoxes and holism: three concepts that underpin this opening lecture on biodiversity.

Courchamp F., The Paradoxes of Biodiversity , Paris, Collège de France, ‘Opening Lectures ’ series, n^o. 337, 2026.

Franck Courchamp is an ecologist. As a CNRS research director at the National Institute of Ecology and the Environment, he has contributed to reports for intergovernmental panels such as the Convention on Biological Diversity, the IPCC and IPBES. A recipient of the CNRS Silver Medal in 2011 and elected to the European Academy of Sciences in 2014, he was a visiting professor at the Collège de France in 2024–2025, holding the Biodiversity and Ecosystems Annual Chair, established with the support of the Jean-François de Clermont-Tonnerre Foundation.