Bio

I’ve always been passionate about science and science communication. In fact, my first-ever show and tell in primary school was on the fauna of the Galapagos Islands. I studied biology in Utrecht, the Netherlands, specializing in the behavioral ecology of Old World monkeys and social insects, doing fieldwork in Indonesia, Costa Rica, and Trinidad and Tobago. In 2000, after my Master’s, I moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, to the research group of Prof Koos Boomsma, to pursue a doctorate on the evolutionary ecology of fungus-growing ants. Next, I spent one year (2006) as a postdoc in the laboratory of Prof Ehab Abouheif at McGill University, studying the ontogeny of worker castes in ants. In 2007, I was awarded an EU Marie-Curie postdoctoral fellowship to study social genomics in fire ants in the group of Prof Laurent Keller in Lausanne, Switzerland, where I stayed five years. In 2012, I was able to fulfill my long-standing ambition to become a science writer and communicator, working at the Swiss open-access publisher Frontiers. Here, I promote newsworthy science to the media, through press release and social media. My press releases have been picked up by top-quality media outlets, such as BBC, Washington Post, New York Times, Time, The Guardian, Science Magazine, and Christian Science Monitor.

Teaching statement

I have only lectured on (molecular) evolution and the the origin of life, evo-devo, behavioral ecology, and entomology, all fields related to my research. However, I am also confident to teach molecular and cell biology, genetics, zoology, genomics, and practical courses (e.g. experimental design, molecular biology, writing, R). I only touch upon social insects, my study organisms, as fascinating, extreme examples of natural selection. Similar to Nowak et al. (doi:10.1038/nature09205), I view kin selection as a heuristic construct that can be useful in research, but which is bound to confuse students if wrongly presented as separate from natural selection.

I adopt a professional teaching manner with explicitly defined, ambitious academic standards, aiming to stimulate deep learning with material that is slightly above the students’ level. I am convinced that teachers have an essential role to play in class, by guiding discovery, providing scaffolding, and clarifying. My lectures and practicals are in the local language to stimulate discussion. When free to design my own course, I schedule an equal number of hours for each of the following elements:

  1. Reading assignments in English, 20-40 pages per week, depending on the students’ English profiency and academic level. Assignments need not be text books, provided the text is rich in examples instead of focusing on abstract ideas. I ask students to attentively read the text once, aiming to understand, but not necessarily retain, as much as possible, and to try looking up whatever was not clear before asking me. Reading material for the whole course should be listed beforehand to stimulate self-regulation. In each course, I include a carefully selected recent article from Nature or Science as reading assignment. Articles teach students that advanced research is accessible; they also provide useful cognitive friction, in that students learn to look past details (e.g. statistics, molecular methods) that they cannot grasp, and to concentrate on those sections that they do understand.
  1. Practicals on reading assignments to stimulate active learning. These can consist of student presentations or discussion (guided by lists of questions) in small groups, depending on class size. I believe that students learn more from designing a paper experiment than from doing cook book experiments. Letting students actually perform their self-designed experiment requires that sufficient resources (e.g. time, trained student assistants, equipment) be available.
  1. Lectures, where I highlight one example (Less Is More!) from the previous reading assignment, expand on it and connect it to recent studies, stress the take-home message, and preview the next reading assignment. I hardly use PowerPoint, being convinced that students absorb most when I write in real time on the blackboard. To stimulate self-regulation and to free time for active learning, I would welcome the opportunity to record webinars.

In conclusion, the aim of my teaching is to challenge students with interesting examples, cognitive friction, and the opportunity to self-regulate a significant but not excessive workload. I am confident that my preferred course schedule provides a good balance between self-study and passive and active learning.

Appendix: Selection of text books I would use in relevant courses

  • Fenchel (2003). The origin and early evolution of life. Oxford University Press.
  • Gibson & S.V. Muse (2009). A primer of genome science (3rd edition). Sinauer Associates Inc.
  • Jastrow & M. Rampino (2008). Origins of life in the Universe. Cambridge University Press.
  • Lewin (2008). Gene IX. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
  • J.B. Reece et al. (2010). Campbell Biology. Benjamin Cumming Publishers.
  • D.O. Morgan (2007). The cell cycle. Oxford University Press.
  • J.L. Nation (2008). Insect physiology and biochemistry. CRC Press.