Interactions

I am currently a post-doc in Rodolfo Dirzo‘s lab at Stanford University in California. Here, I am studying the extant and extinct seed dispersal networks on Mauritius (yes, yes, I know; I will never quite finish with that island…!), and the potential use of ecological analogue species to replace extinct species — thus resurrecting lost ecosystem dynamics. Before this, I worked as a post-doc with Steve Johnson at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Together with Steve and Timo van der Niet, we worked on pollination of several wonderful plants: Melianthus, Laiperousia, and Satyrium. Even earlier, I had a short post-doc at the Institute of Environmental Sciences, University of Zurich in Switzerland, where I also did my PhD with Christine Müller on ecology, evolution, and conservation of plant-animal interactions on tropical islands. In simple terms, this means that I worked with pollination and seed dispersal involving wonderful geckos, giant tortoises and weird plants on the fantastic volcanic rock known as the Island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. My original mentor & unsurpassed übernerd is Jens Mogens Olesen; I did my MSc work with him at the University of Aarhus in Denmark.