​Currently, I am a fellow of the DFG Walter Benjamin Program, and I work as a postdoctoral researcher with Diana Rennison at the University of California San Diego. I am particularly interested in understanding how organisms cope with changing environments. To answer this question, I study a famous model system in evolutionary biology, the threespine stickleback fish. Over the last few years, my research has mainly focused on how interactions between host organisms and their associated gut bacterial communities (i.e., their gut microbiome) can affect host ecology and evolution. I address this question by investigating ecologically relevant gut microbiome variation in wild populations and by performing controlled lab experiments. Moreover, I am interested in developing novel methodological and theoretical approaches in microbiome research in order to better understand the distribution of gut microbiome diversity across diverse host lineages. While I consider myself an evolutionary biologist, I aim to approach scientific questions in an integrative manner by incorporating concepts and methodology from different fields.

field work - Impressions

Vancouver Island
California
Nicaragua