Bes Van den Abbeele has been a PhD candidate at the Complexity Science Hub since June 2026.

Within the FLOWSAFE project, she works in collaboration with Rudolf Hanel and Vito D. P. Servedio on the development of AI-enabled and complexity-based models to predict the impact of floods and assess which nature-based solutions are best suited to specific environmental and societal contexts. Her research focuses on the resilience of interconnected systems and aims to support more sustainable and adaptive responses to climate-related risks.

Bes obtained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Bioscience Engineering in Brussels and Ghent, where she developed a broad scientific background spanning biological systems, environmental sciences, mathematics, and data analysis. In her master’s thesis, she focused on functional biodiversity recovery during secondary succession in the tropical rainforests of the central Congo Basin, studying how ecological functions and species composition recover over time following forest disturbance. This research combined ecological fieldwork, biodiversity analysis, and sustainability-related questions concerning tropical forest resilience and restoration.