Index
Collaborators
Alumni
- de Bona, Sebastiano
- Burdfield-Steel, Emily
- Dickel, Franziska
- Gordon, Swanne
- Hegna, Robert
- Hämäläinen, Liisa
- Ihalainen, Eira
- Kikuchi, David
- Lindstedt, Carita
- Lindström, Leena
- Merilaita, Sami
- Mikonranta, Lauri
- de Moraes Rezende, Francisko
- Rojas, Bibiana
- Rosa, Elena
- Rowland, Hannah
- Rönkä, Katja
- Santostefano, Francesca
- Silvasti, Sanni
- Suisto, Kaisa
- Valkonen, Janne
- Winters, Anne
Sebastiano de Bona
Postdoctoral Researcher in the Integrative Ecology Lab at Temple University (USA)
Seba seeks to find how population-level features emerge from traits at the individual level.
During his doctoral work, he studied how dispersal, habitat choice, and other life-history traits shape the spatial ecology of introduced guppy populations.
Contacts
Google Scholar
ResearchGate
Dept. Website
Social Media
Emily Burdfield-Steel
Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
Emily is interested in how communication shapes evolution, particularly when communication breaks down.
Such errors teach her about the selection pressures acting on a system.
Contacts
Professional Website
Google Scholar
ResearchGate
Dept. Website
Social Media
Frank Chan
Max Planck Research Group Leader, Friedrich Miescher Laboratory, Tübingen (Germany)
Frank wants to understand how the genome manages to be both robust and flexible, conserving what works whilst rapidly responding to selection.
Contacts
Lab Website
Google Scholar
ResearchGate
Social Media
Franziska Dickel
Research Associate at Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz (Austria)
Franziska studies how insects can boost their immunity by using surrounding plants as a pharmacy.
Contacts
Professional Website
John Endler
Alfred Deakin Professor at Deakin University (Australia)
John considers himself a 19th century natural historian with 21st century techniques.
He predicts the direction of evolution by looking at the interaction between sensory systems, signals and the environment. Also, he codes.
Dalial Freitak
Associate Professor at the University of Graz (Austria)
Dalial is an entomologist that wants to know how insects stay healthy, with a mind to ecology, evolutionary biology, physiology and immunology.
Contacts
Professional Website
Lab Website
Google Scholar
ResearchGate
Social Media
Swanne Gordon
Department of Biology, Washington University St Louis (USA)
Swanne’s research questions why diversity persists in nature.
She uses a combination of field, laboratory, and theoretical approaches centred around wood tiger moths and Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata).
Contacts
Professional Website
Dept. Website
Google Scholar
ResearchGate
Social Media
Astrid Groot
Professor at the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
Astrid’s research aligns closely with our own, so it’s no surprise that we find something to do together.
In general, we are investigating variation in attraction to chemical signals, in collaboration also with Bibiana Rojas, Emily Burdfield-Steel, <Chiara de Pasqual>, <Cristina Ottocento> and Pherobank.
Robert Hegna
Assistant Professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University (USA)
Robert is a behavioural ecologist that studies how prey use warning signals to avoid being eaten. His methods involve field behaviour experiments and population genetic analyses, using both vertebrates and invertebrates.
Other than moths, he’s also into herpetology and scorpions.
Marie Herberstein
Professor at Macquarie University (Australia)
Marie investigates the behavioural ecology of invertebrates within an evolutionary framework.
She works with spiders as ideal models for deceptive signals, mating behaviour and sexual selection, among other topics.
Marie has also conducted an in-depth analysis of Eurovision.
Contacts
Lab Website
Dept. Website
Google Scholar
ResearchGate
Social Media
Robert D. Holt
Eminent Scholar and
Arthur R. Marshall, Jr., Chair in Ecology at the University of Florida, Gainesville (USA)
Bob’s core research focuses on theoretical issues at the population and community levels, and linking ecology with evolutionary biology.
He also uses theory for applied problems, particularly conservation biology, and conducts experiments on habitat fragmentation.
Contacts
Dept. Website
Google Scholar
Liisa Hämäläinen
Visiting Fellow at Macquarie University (Australia)
Liisa is a behavioural and evolutionary ecologist interested in the warning signals of prey, and how predators adapt to this information.
She is currently a visiting fellow at Macquarie University in Australia, where she investigates variation in warning signals in an aposematic tiger moth that isn’t plantaginis (Amata annulata).
Contacts
Google Scholar
ResearchGate
Social Media
Eira Ihalainen
Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of St Andrews (UK)
Eira’s research with us covered warning signals and mimicry, before she went on to study learning and behaviour in zebra finches as a Marie Curie Fellow.
Chris Jiggins
Professor at the University of Cambridge (UK)
Chris studies adaptation and speciation in butterflies and moths, for which he is an expert on Heliconius butterflies.
He wants to understand the predictability of evolution, looking to convergence in mimics and the underlying causes for speciation.
Almut Kelber
Professor at Lund University (Sweden)
Almut’s research centers around the visual ecology of animals – including birds and butterflies, moths and bees, frogs and toads.
She looks into the eyes of these creatures, relating their unique functionality to the world around them.
Contacts
Dept. Website
Google Scholar
ResearchGate
Social Media
David Kikuchi
Researcher at Universität Bielefeld (Germany)
David studies communication from all different angles, including its role in cooperation and conflict.
He questions how communities and signals shape each other, and the underlying mechanisms behind signal production.
Contacts
Professional Website
Google Scholar
ResearchGate
Social Media
Hanna Kokko
Professor at the University of Zurich (Switzerland)
Hanna has been with us since the early days. She adds her valuable insights toward how evolution and ecology interact, and helps bridge empirical and theoretical approaches.
Contacts
Professional Website
Lab Website
Dept. Website
Google Scholar
ResearchGate
Social Media
Carita Lindstedt-Kareksela
Senior Researcher at the University of Jyväskylä
Group leader in the science education project: Evolution in Action
Carita seeks to understand adaptive variation in antipredator strategies, like cooperative defence. She looks closely at signals, and the pervading ecological and social conditions.
Her main study species are pine sawflies, but she also works with other prey and predator species.
Contacts
carita.a.lindstedt[at]jyu.fi
Professional Website
Google Scholar
ResearchGate
Social Media
Leena Lindström
Professor at the University of Jyväskylä
Leena mainly wants to know about biological invasions: predicting how humans and climate change affect pest species.
But she also has interests in how predators can select for both cryptic and conspicuous colouration.
Contacts
Professional Website
Lab Website
Google Scholar
ResearchGate
Social Media
Anne Lyytinen
Senior Planning Officer at the University of Jyväskylä
Sami Merilaita
Lecturer at the University of Turku (Finland)
Sami is an expert in behavioural ecology, evolutionary ecology, protective coloration and colour polymorphism.
Lauri Mikonranta
Research Associate at the University of York (UK)
Lauri’s research centers on the complex dynamics of interactions between host, pathogen and microbiome.
He also maintains a pretty serious set of camera gear for nature photography.
Francisko de Moraes Rezende
Franzisko investigated how variable light conditions affect warning signal efficacy in an aposematic polymorphic moth.
Contacts
ResearchGate
Bibiana Rojas
Academy of Finland Research Fellow at the University of Jyväskylä
Bibiana studies at the intersection of behavioural and evolutionary ecology. She’s an expert on communication and interactions, especially within frogs, moths and birds.
Her current interests focus on tadpole cannibalism and its modulation by parental decisions, alongside disease transmission in wild poison frog populations.
Contacts
bibiana.rojas[at]jyu.fi
Lab Website
Google Scholar
ResearchGate
Social Media
Elena Rosa
Researcher at Natural Resource Institute of Finland (Luonnonvarakeskus, LUKE)
Elena wants an active role in environmental preservation.
Her PhD thesis investigated the ecological factors that shape immune defense, alongside the trade-offs between immune response and life-history traits.
Contacts
ResearchGate
Social Media
Hannah Rowland
Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena (Germany)
Hannah explores the evolution and function of anti-predator defences, including aposematism.
Katja Rönkä
Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Helsinki
Katja just completed her PhD with us, aiming to answer why the Wood Tiger Moth comes in so many colours. Her research involved a variety of techniques, varying from molecular systematics, to behavioural assays, to large-scale predation experiments in the field.
She is now a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki.
Contacts
katja.ronka[at]helsinki.fi
Dept. Website
Professional Website
Google Scholar
ResearchGate
Social Media
Francesca is interested in how social interactions among animals shape their behaviours and fitness.
Contacts
Dept. Website (MPI)
Dept. Website (QCBS)
Google Scholar
ResearchGate
Sanni Silvasti
Sanni studied the behavioural thresholds of blue tit colour vision and the effect of chromatic complexity in finding prey.
Contacts
ResearchGate
Kaisa Suisto
Technician
Moth Whisperer
Toomas Tammaru
Professor at the University of Tartu (Estonia)
Toomas is a scientist and naturalist, mainly interested in butterflies and moths around the Holarctic.
He studies their evolutionary and population ecology, so there is much for us to share.
Rose Thorogood
Assistant Professor in Behavioural Ecology, University of Helsinki
Rose uses information ecology theory to better understand coevolution.
Her projects look into how information use by predators affects the evolution of prey defences, and the information conflict between brood-parasitic cuckoos and their hosts.
Contacts
rose.thorogood[at]helsinki.fi
Professional Website
Google Scholar
ResearchGate
Dept. Website
Social Media
Janne Valkonen
Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Jyväskylä
Janne is interested in studying the colouration of whatever snakes and frogs he can find.
He’s also an expert at stats, and a seasoned field worker.
Contacts
janne.k.valkonen[at]jyu.fi
Google Scholar
ResearchGate
Anne Winters
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at Exeter University, Cornwall (UK)
Anne researches the chemical defenses of the wood tiger moth, with respect to chemical diversity and the functional roles of different compounds.
She’s also interested in the costs associated with obtaining chemical defenses, which can help to explain the variation seen in nature.
Contacts
A.E.Winters[at]exeter.ac.uk
Professional Website
Google Scholar
ResearchGate
Social Media
Ecology & Evolution of Interactions 