Welcome

I am a computational evolutionary biologist interested in how populations adapt to rapidly changing environments. My research combines evolutionary genomics, computational biology, and machine learning to understand the mechanisms that drive rapid evolutionary change and to predict how populations respond to environmental challenges such as climate change, habitat fragmentation, and anthropogenic selection pressures.

Starting August 1st, I will join the Genetic Agrobiodiversity Section at the Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics (QGG), Aarhus University, as a tenure-track Assistant Professor. There, I will use genomic and computational approaches to study biodiversity dynamics and adaptation in natural populations across heterogeneous environments.

In classical population genetics, evolution is often viewed as a slow process unfolding over thousands of generations. However, in the Anthropocene, many species must adapt within only a few generations to rapidly changing environments such as pesticide-treated landscapes, fragmented habitats, and urban ecosystems. My work aims to understand these rapid evolutionary processes by linking genomic data, phenotypic measurements, and computational models.

After receiving my Bachelor’s Degree in Ecology & Biodiversity (University of Salzburg) and my Master’s Degree in Bioinformatics (JKU Linz), I joined the Vienna Graduate School of Population Genetics at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna. Under the supervision of Prof. Christian Schlötterer, I studied how Drosophila populations adapt to thermal environments using genomic analyses, simulations, and phenotypic assays.

During my PhD, I spent six months at Cornell University working with Profs. Philipp Messer and Andrew Clark, where I collaborated with Prof. Jackson Champer on the fitness effects of CRISPR/Cas systems and gene drives in experimental Drosophila populations. This work sparked my broader interest in how spatial structure and environmental heterogeneity shape evolutionary dynamics.

As an MSCA Postdoctoral Fellow, I worked with Profs. Philipp Messer, Courtney Murdock, and Joachim Hermisson on computational models and machine learning approaches to study mosquito-transmitted disease dynamics in structured populations.

Most recently, as an AIAS-AUFF Fellow at Aarhus University, I investigated how environmental heterogeneity shapes the spread of adaptive mutations using individual-based simulations, statistical inference, and machine learning approaches.