I work on the evolutionary biology of species diversity. Why does life evolve into distinct species? What processes shape speciation, adaptive divergence and diversity patterns? How does diversity affect the evolution of species living in complex ecosystems? In order to tackle these questions, I combine theory and statistical analysis with molecular, genomic, experimental and field data across a wide range of animals, plants, fungi and bacteria. Current projects include comparative genomics to understand the bizarre asexual life-style of bdelloid rotifers – microscopic animals living in moss and freshwater – evolutionary time-series of pathogenic fungi from cryopreserved living samples, and ‘evolution and speciation in action’ in complex microbial communities.
