I am an (evolutionary) ecologist broadly interested in how populations and communities respond to global change. I am currently a group leader in the Department of Evolutionary biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich
My background is in conservation biology, but for my PhD with Nicolas Schtickzelle, I have shifted to microbial model systems to address fundamental questions in ecology and evolutionary biology. My PhD was focused on the genetic and environmental drivers of movement and dispersal of Tetrahymena thermophila ciliates.
From 2014 to 2019, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher with Owen Petchey on understanding the effects of warming on community structure and composition, and the emerging field of ecological predictability.
I work at the interface of experiments and theory: I mostly collect data on microbial model systems and perform mathematical and statistical modeling. In the past (and hopefully in the future) I will work with insects, a group I am particularly fond of!
To guide my research, I develop open source software, for instance, digital image and video-based techniques to automatically quantify individuals and their traits.
PhD in Biology, 2014
Université catholique de Louvain
Diploma in Applied Biogeography, 2009
University of Trier