Contact

Postdoctoral researcher at the Earth and Life Institute (UCLouvain)

Hello,

I m a Postdoctoral researcher at ELI (UCLouvain - BE).

In October 2025, I secured a founding to start the HydroNeedle project (CR-FNRS) with Valentin Couvreur, where I'm investigating the interplay between hydraulics and biomechanics in pine needles. This work is carried out in collaboration with Stan Schymanski and Pierre Vollenweider through the Micro-C flux project. Our goal is to better understand how needle-scale hydraulic regulation impacts tissue biomechanics and overall water use strategies in conifers.

Before that, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Umeå Plant Science Centre, working jointly with Stéphanie Robert and Stéphane Verger. My project focused on understanding the relationship between epidermal cells and their superstructures under various mechanical stress conditions, combining imaging, modeling, and quantitative analysis.

From 2018 to 2022, I completed my PhD at UCLouvain (Belgium), where I delved into the fascinating "in silico" realm of root hydraulic anatomy under Guillaume guidance. Following that, I carried out two short post-doc at UCLouvain, which led me to explore further the hidden half.

Anatomical functions are quite surprising and to unravel their mysteries I mostly use computational models. As a results, I hope that a better understanding at the anatomical level will improve the ways we grow plants.

Research

  1. 2026

  2. Plant hydraulics branch, latest work. HEAD → plant-hydraulics Ongoing

    RootSAS — Root System & Anatomy Suite

    Integrated pipeline for 2D root images: from root system architecture to cell anatomy and hydraulic modelling (root scans → Stelex / DigRED; cross-sections → Stari → GRANAP → MECHA conductivities).

    In development

    Builds on: GRANAP · MECHA · RootPainter

  3. Plant hydraulics branch. Under development

    GRANAP

    New version of GRANAR, rewritten in Python: generator of anatomies for all plant organs.

    OpenAlea incubator · in development

    Builds on: GRANAR · HydroNeedle

    GitHub repository
  4. Cell mechanics branch, latest work. cell-mechanics In development

    DLhook

    High-throughput apical hook phenotyping of dark-grown Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings.

    D. Radianu, A. Heymans, S. Doyle, S. Robert, S. Raggi · active development

    GitHub repository
    DLhook apical hook segmentation
  5. Cell mechanics branch. Preprint

    Mechanical coordination of counter-gradient growth maintains organ curvature in the apical hook

    S. Robert, S. Raggi, H. Ratnakaram, A. Heymans, L. Devi, Ö. Erguvan, S. Doyle, F. Jobert, A. Atakhani, S. Liu, et al. · Research Square · 2026

    Builds on: Bvpy

  6. Plant hydraulics branch. Paper

    Impact of root development, soil texture, and length of the root hair zone on root water uptake

    F. Stoll, J. Vanderborght, P. Duddek, F. Meunier, A. Heymans, M.A. Ahmed, A. Carminati · in silico Plants 8(1) · 2026

  7. Plant hydraulics branch. Paper

    Secondary growth and exodermal barriers shape local root hydraulics: modelling insights in tomato

    M. D’Agostino, R. Schoppach, A. Heymans, V. Couvreur, G. Lobet · in silico Plants · 2026

    Builds on: GRANAR · MECHA · MARSHAL

  8. Cell mechanics branch. Paper

    The primary beta-galactosidase BGAL10 modulates pavement cell shape acquisition in Arabidopsis

    S. Yadav, V. Kumar, A. Heymans, N. Sabooni, F. Jobert, M. Lin, P. Grones, L. Bacete, S. Robert · Journal of Experimental Botany · 2026

  9. 2025

  10. Plant hydraulics branch. Merge: combines plant hydraulics and cell mechanics work. Merge Project

    HydroNeedle

    Modeling hydraulic functions of pine needle anatomy under well-watered and water deficit conditions, and how they interplay with needle biomechanics.

    A. Heymans, S. Schymanski, P. Vollenweider, V. Couvreur · CR-FNRS · since October 2025

    Builds on: Granar-Mecha · EpiMech

    GitHub organization
    Pine needle cross-section used for hydraulic modelling
  11. Plant hydraulics branch. Paper

    Node of origin matters: comparative analysis of soil water limitation effects on nodal root anatomy in maize (Zea mays)

    T. Koehler, Y. Kim, S.-Y. Tung, A. Heymans, N. Tyborski, F. Steiner, A.J. Wild, J. Pausch, M.A. Ahmed, H.M. Schneider · Annals of Botany 136(5–6) · 2025

    Builds on: GRANAR · MECHA

  12. Cell mechanics branch. Review

    “Shape of Cell” — An auxin and cell wall duet

    V. Kumar, S. Yadav, A. Heymans, S. Robert · Physiologia Plantarum 177(3) · 2025

  13. Cell mechanics branch. Preprint

    Regulation of vacuole fusion, a pivotal mechanism mitigating salt-induced inhibition of root cell growth

    C. Rodriguez-Furlan, O. Betz, W. Tiernan, K. Shipman, G. Castro, R. Campos, A. Heymans, O. Hazelwood, A. Ashraf, S. Robert · Research Square · 2025

    Builds on: Bvpy

  14. Cell mechanics branch. Preprint Project

    EpiMech — Outer epidermal edges mediate cell-cell adhesion for tissue integrity in plants

    Ö. Erguvan, A. Heymans, A. Atakhani, E. Gascon, R.S. Smith, O. Ali, S. Verger · bioRxiv · 2025

    Builds on: Bvpy

    Epidermal cell adhesion model
  15. 2024

  16. Plant hydraulics branch. Paper

    Seedling root system adaptation to water availability during maize domestication and global expansion

    P. Yu, C. Li, M. Li, et al. (incl. A. Heymans) · Nature Genetics 56(6) · 2024

    Builds on: GRANAR · MECHA · MARSHAL

  17. Plant hydraulics branch. Paper

    Evidence that variation in root anatomy contributes to local adaptation in Mexican native maize

    C. McLaughlin, M. Li, M. Perryman, A. Heymans, H. Schneider, J. Lasky, R. Sawers · Evolutionary Applications · 2024

    Builds on: GRANAR · MECHA

  18. Cell mechanics branch starts here (Umeå Plant Science Centre postdoc), branching off plant hydraulics. Branch Preprint

    Rhamnogalacturonan-II dimerization deficiency impairs the coordination between growth and adhesion maintenance in plants

    A.I. Baba, L. Lisica, A. Atakhani, B. Aryal, L. Bogdziewiez, Ö. Erguvan, A. Heymans, et al. · bioRxiv · 2024

    Builds on: RootPainter

  19. 2023

  20. Plant hydraulics branch. Paper

    Collaborative benchmarking of functional-structural root architecture models: quantitative comparison of simulated root water uptake

    A. Schnepf, C.K. Black, V. Couvreur, B.M. Delory, C. Doussan, A. Heymans, et al. · in silico Plants 5(1) · 2023

    Builds on: R-SWMS

  21. Plant hydraulics branch. Ongoing

    HydraMaize

    The influence of heterogeneous soil water potential on root growth: modeling root plastic response.

    A. Heymans, T. Wei, M. Laurent, X. Draye, M. Javaux · experiments and simulations ongoing

    Builds on: R-SWMS

    Animated simulation of maize root growth in heterogeneous soil
  22. 2022

  23. Plant hydraulics branch. Milestone. PhD thesis

    In silico analysis of the influence of root hydraulic anatomy on maize (Zea mays) water uptake

    Includes Hydraulic VIPER, a virtual phenotyping pipeline for root hydraulic traits (with V. Couvreur, F. Meunier, M. Javaux, X. Draye, G. Lobet).

    A. Heymans · UCLouvain · 2022

    Builds on: GRANAR · MECHA · CRootBox · Hydrus · MARSHAL

    VIPER poster VIPER slides
    Hydraulic VIPER pipeline overview
  24. 2021

  25. Plant hydraulics branch. Tool

    Granar-Mecha

    Radial water fluxes in a generated root cross-section.

    A. Heymans, V. Couvreur · 2021

    Builds on: GRANAR

    Try it
    Radial water flux map in a generated root cross-section
  26. Plant hydraulics branch. Preprint

    Evidence for a multicellular symplasmic water pumping mechanism across vascular plant roots

    V. Couvreur, A. Heymans, G. Lobet, X. Draye · bioRxiv · 2021

    Builds on: MECHA

  27. Plant hydraulics branch. Paper Project

    Hydraulic Maps — Combining cross-section images and modeling tools to create high-resolution root system hydraulic atlases in Zea mays

    A. Heymans, V. Couvreur, G. Lobet · Plant Direct 5(7) · 2021

    Builds on: GRANAR · MECHA

    Hydraulic atlas of a maize root system
  28. 2020

  29. Plant hydraulics branch. Paper Tool

    GRANAR — A computational tool to better understand the functional importance of monocotyledon root anatomy

    A. Heymans, V. Couvreur, T. LaRue, A. Paez-Garcia, G. Lobet · Plant Physiology 182(2) · 2020

    Try it online Website
    Generated maize root cross-section
  30. Plant hydraulics branch. Service

    SmartRoot to CRootBox

    From root system scans to a 3D model of your plant in a few steps.

    CRootBox
    Animated 3D maize root system at 15 days
  31. 2019

  32. Plant hydraulics branch starts here. Paper Tool

    MARSHAL — A novel tool for virtual phenotyping of maize root system hydraulic architectures

    F. Meunier, A. Heymans, X. Draye, V. Couvreur, M. Javaux, G. Lobet · in silico Plants · 2019

    Try it online Website
    MARSHAL maize root system hydraulic architecture

Useful tools

Plant models - Image analysis software tools - Image dataset

quantitative-plant.org . A website presenting image analysis software tools and models for plants

Doing Sciences with R

R for Data Science. This book will teach you how to do data science with R

Data to Viz. From Data to Viz leads you to the most appropriate graph for your data. It links to the code to build it and lists common caveats you should avoid.