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Thanks for popping by! I am currently working as a post-doc in the Ecosystems and Landscape Evolution Group at ETH Zürich and the Swiss Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape (WSL), where I am using simulation models to understand the macroevolutionary drivers behind broad scale biodiversity patterns (find out more). Before this, I did my PhD with Marcel Cardillo in the Macroevolution and Macroecology Group at the Australian National University.

I’m interested in finding links between biogeographic diversity patterns and the macroevolutionary histories of the plant and animal clades that contribute to them. One of my main interests is the origins of biodiversity hotspots, such as those found in tropical rainforests, mountain ranges, or Mediterranean-type ecosystems. I am also interested in understanding how these regions, and the taxa found within them, are vulnerable to global change. To explore these topics, I analyse spatial, phylogenetic, and ecological trait data with simulation modelling and phylogenetic comparative approaches.

Some specific questions I’m interested in include:

(i) How have paleoenvironmental dynamics, including climate change, plate tectonics, and mountain building, shaped evolutionary radiations and observable patterns of species diversity in the present-day?

(ii) Can we detect and use the signatures of speciation, extinction, and geographic range evolution dynamics in spatial and phylogenetic data to make inferences about ecological and evolutionary processes?

(iii) What factors drive exceptional plant diversity in Mediterranean-Type-Ecosystems?

(iv) Can we forecast extinction risk in vulnerable groups using spatial, phylogenetic, and trait data?

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

Here is a link to my Mastodon to verify I own this website!