I have a strong interest in evolutionary biology and ecology, with a particular focus on the interactions between species, populations and individuals and their environment. I currently work on the evolutionary consequences of multiple independent transitions to asexuality in Timema stick insects. We compare differential expression in parthenogenetic and sexually reproducing lineages. Additional projects investigate sexual conflict, facultative parthenogenesis and sexual behaviour. Previous work focused on the evolution of parasitoid resistance in Drosophila melanogaster. Using artificial selection I created replicate populations of D. melanogaster in order to investigate selection for parasitoid resistance and to assess the impact of a strong selective pressure on the genome.
2014 - present
Post-doctoral researcher
Department of Ecology and Evolution (DEE), University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Advisor: Tanja Schwander
2008 - 2014
PhD student
Centre for Ecology and Evolution (CEES), University of Groningen, the Netherlands
Supervisors: Bregje Wertheim, Louis van de Zande and R. Bijlsma
(up to 2009: R. Bijlsma, Louis van de Zande and Leo Beukeboom)
2001 - 2007
Biology/MSc student (Topmaster Evolutionary Ecology),
University of Groningen, the Netherlands
