Background
| Since 2015 | Professor in Evolutionary Genomics & Curator of the Helminth collections 2015 |
| 2011-2015 | Heisenberg fellow, Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn Germany |
| 2005-2011 | Researcher, Deep Metazoan Phylogeny - Priority Programm, University of Osnabrück, Germany |
| Since 2009 | Affiliated Assistant Professor, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA |
| Since 2008 | Privatdozent, University of Osnabrück, Germany |
| 2003-2005 | PostDoctoral fellow, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA |
| 1999-2003 | PhD in Biology, University of Osnabrück, Germany with fellowships from Episcopalian Cusanuswerk & the State of Lower Saxonia, Germany |
| 1993-1999 | Diploma in Biology, University of Osnabrück & Max Planck-Institute of Molecular Physiology, Dortmund, Germany |
Teaching and tutoring
BIOS1150 – Biodiversity
The course provides a fundamental introduction to the Earth's biological diversity, including viruses, bacteria, protists, fungi, plants, and animals. You will also learn about evolutionary processes that have given rise to this diversity. The biology of different organism groups is a central topic in lectures, laboratory exercises, and seminars. Knowledge of biological diversity and the biology of organisms is essential for understanding nature as a system and is crucial for further studies in ecology and evolution.
BIOS4215 – Evolution and Systematics of Organismal Groups: The Animal Kingdom
The animal kingdom provides by far the largest proportion to Earth's biodiversity and they have occupied all habitats on Earth including other organisms. In this subject, we will present the recent knowledge across different animal groups concerning the evolution of their diversity and adaptive solutions to similar ecological challenges in different groups. The evolution of these traits will be set concerning the recent understanding of the animal phylogeny, and taxonomy. In this subject, special emphasis will be put on groups, which are requested by the participating students, as well as on collection-based work as it is conducted at a Natural History Museum. Hence, the subject will also comprise classes about career opportunities as collection management or exhibition development.
BIOS5214/BIOS9214 – Biogeography and Biodiversity
This course concerns the geographical distributions of taxa and populations on global and regional scales and the processes that have given rise to these.
Other teaching and training activities
I supervise Master and PhD candidates in Genomics, Phylogenomics, Phylogeography, Taxonomy, and Bioinformatics. I also teach one-time courses in different settings.
Fields of interest
My research encompasses different aspects of the evolution and biodiversity of marine spiralians at all taxonomic levels with an emphasis on annelids. My group thereby employs evolutionary genomic, phylogenomic, phylogeographic, population genetic and bioinformatic approaches to address questions in the evolution of these taxa. We have also several projects on taxonomy and biodiversity mapping of marine invertebrates.
For further information please look at our group page and for all scientific publications my google scholar page.