Research.

I am an applied mathematician working on theory and applications in evolutionary biology. The underlying principle of my research is to identify and model processes on the molecular and/or individual level from which population and evolutionary behaviour is derived and analysed. The essential step in the model construction is that the state of the population in ecological and evolutionary time-scale in turn affects the processes on the individual level, leading to so-called eco-evolutionary feedback loops.
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My work consists of three layers. First, I do the mathematical modeling and analysis of specific biological phenomena, in particular, the evolution of reproductive isolation in sexually reproducing populations, the evolution of cooperation in populations with optional interactions, and the evolution of genomic architecture in self-incompatibility loci in plants. The main modelling approaches I use are ordinary differential equations, difference equations and stochastic processes. Second, I use mathematical models to clarify biological concepts, such as reproductive values and identity measures, to form a more general picture on the interplay between selection, mutation, migration and drift. Finally, to have the appropriate mathematical objects and tools available, I do pure research in the theory of dynamical systems, probability theory and geometric singular perturbation theory. My current focus is on timescale separation methods in spatially structured populations.

theory

MATE CHOICE AND SPECIATION

Evolution of cooperation

NON-SELF RECOGNITION MATING SYSTEMS