Dr Dufourq is a resident researcher at AIMS, and a senior lecturer in applied mathematics. He leads the Machine Learning for Ecology Research group. From Mauritius, he obtained a Bachelor’s degree (Computer Science & Applied Mathematics) from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in 2012, graduated Summa Cum Laude Honours (Computer Science) in 2013, obtained a Master’s degree (Computer Science) in 2016 under the supervision of Prof. Nelishia Pillay and obtained his PhD (Applied Mathematics) from the University of Cape Town in 2019 under the supervision of Prof. Bruce Bassett. His doctorate focused on evolutionary deep learning which included evolutionary algorithms for text compression, sentiment analysis, facial emotion recognition and neural network optimisation.

He then pursued a post-doctoral fellowship at AIMS South Africa from 2019 to 2021, under the supervision of Dr Ian Durbach, where he obtained the Next Einstein AIMS-Canada fellowship in Climate Change Science award. He focused on deep learning and passive acoustic monitoring methodologies for the world’s rarest primate. 

Between August 2021 and July 2023 he was the AIMS Canadian Junior Research Chair in Climate Science. His primary focus is on developing machine learning algorithms to develop wildlife monitoring techniques. He has supervised a number of research students related to machine learning for ecology from AIMS, the University of Cape Town, Stellenbosch University and the University of Rwanda.