I am a Marine Biologist and a lecturer at the Marine Animal Ecology group with a personal interest in corals and coral reef organisms. I study population genetics, genetic connectivity and biogeography as well as physiology of stony corals and other marine organisms.
I did my MSc in Biology at Wageningen University focusing on coral physiology, parasite dispersal, and marine resource management. In 2011 I started a position as Education Assistant at the Free University of Brussels (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, VUB) where I taught in Animal Biology, Evolution, Ecology, Conservation genetics and Marine Field studies. In my PhD, I investigated population genetic structure and genetic connectivity of stony corals the Western Indian Ocean, Red Sea and Indonesia, as well as species delimitation in corals. In 2019, I started as a lecturer at the School of Life Sciences at the University of Essex, gained my Fellowship (FHEA) of the Higher Education Academy, and was teaching Coral Reef Biology, Tropical Marine Resources, Animal Evolution, Ecology and Behaviour and Tropical Marine Systems. In December 2020 I got the opportunity to return to Wageningen as a lecturer at Marine Animal Ecology (MAE) Group.
As a lecturer at MAE I am involved in research, the development and coordination of several courses, the supervision thesis and internship projects and general administration of the Marine Animal Ecology group. I am also coordinator of two courses involving Scientific Diving. On a national level I represent and coordinate the national Dutch Scientific Diving Platform (https://www.dutchscientificdiving.nl/). For more information on Scientific Diving, please contact Scientific.diving@wur.nl.