Curriculum
Research interests
Analysis of speciation processes, evolution of insects, phylogenomics, bioinformatics, evolutionary genomics, transfer & transdisciplinary research, science communication, museum development, social transformation processes
Current positions
since 2021
Director General Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB), Bonn & Hamburg
since 2010
Full Professor of Special Zoology at the University of Bonn
Reviewing, consulting activities, boards and memberships
- since 2026: Deputy Spokesperson of Section C of the Leibniz Association
- since 2021: Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart
- since 2021: Co-speaker of the OSIRIS consortium
- since 2020: Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the BMFTR Research Initiative for the Conservation of Biodiversity (FEdA)
- 2020 - 2024: Spokesperson of the German Natural Science Research Collections (DNFS), since 2025 2nd Chairman and Vice Spokesperson
- since 2019: Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Primate Centre DPZ, Göttingen
- 2011 - 2015: Advisor to the National Science Foundation, USA
- 2005 - 2011: Member of the steering group of the priority programme SPP 1174 "Deep Metazoan Phylogeny", German Research Foundation (DFG)
- 2004 - 2008: Coordinator for the reorganisation of the Department of Biology in Kabul, Afghanistan
- 2001 - 2004: Editorial Board of the journal "Molecular Phylogenetics & Evolution"; Editorial Board of the journal "Entomologische Abhandlungen"
- since 2005: Reviewer for various scientific journals, reviewer activities for the German Research Foundation (DFG), Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Austrian Science Fund FWF
Academic qualifications
2002
Habilitation and venia legendi at the University of Bonn
1995
Doctor rer. nat. at the University of Vienna, Austria, Evolutionary Biology
1991
Magister rer. nat. at the University of Vienna, Austria
Career
since 2020
Director General of the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change
2019 - 2020
Commissioned Director of the Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig (ZFMK), Bonn
2010 - 2019
Professor (W3), Head of the Centre for Molecular Biodiversity Research, University of Bonn and Deputy Director of the Zool. Research Museum Alexander Koenig (ZFMK), Bonn
2009 - 2010
Speaker of the Zoological Museum of the University of Hamburg
2008 - 2010
Professor (W3), Head of the Entomology Department, Grindel Biocentre and Zoological Museum, University of Hamburg
2001 - 2008
Curator for Lower Arthropods and Head of the Molecular Laboratory at the Zool. Research Museum Alexander Koenig (ZFMK), Bonn
1999 - 2000
Research Assistant at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Ecology, University of Bonn
1998 - 1999
Schroedinger Scholarship Holder at the University of Bonn
1995 - 1997
von Humboldt Scholarship Holder, University of Bonn
1992 - 1995
Visiting Assistant in Research at the Center of Computational Ecology, Yale University, USA
1991 - 1992
Fulbright Scholarship Holder - Scholarship from the Ministry of Education, Austria, at Yale University, USA
Awards and honours
- 2022: Honorary doctorate from Ilia State University, Georgia
- 2017: Friedrich Brauer Medal of the Austrian Entomological Society