I am a PhD student at the University of Basel studying the evolutionary biology of diatoms. My path into the diatom world was not a particularly straightforward one, as my bachelor's and master's studies focused primarily on bioinformatics and computational biology in a biomedical context. A growing interest in evolution, ecology, and organismal biology eventually led me to these fascinating organisms, and I have been enjoying the challenge of learning a completely new field.
My PhD research focuses on a newly discovered assemblage of the diatom genus Diploneis from Lake Tanganyika in East Africa. I am interested in understanding how this group evolved such remarkable diversity and whether it represents an example of adaptive radiation, where species rapidly diversify to exploit different environments. While I am most familiar with omics data analysis, I am currently expanding my skills in diatom taxonomy and ecology, and learning field- and laboratory-based work, discovering that some of the most exciting evolutionary questions begin with figuring out which species you are actually looking at.
