Welcome Florian Altermatt - new SE
Submitted by editor on 27 March 2015.
We are very happy to welcome Florian Altermatt, University of Zurich, to the Oikos Editorial Board. Below, he introduces himself:
1. What's you main research focus at the moment?
My main interests at the moment are to understand how spatial network configuration shapes dispersal, diversity and ecosystem processes. I currently have a strong focus on diversity in dendritic river networks, and combine protist microcosm experiments, comparative and manipulative field studies and, through collaborations, theoretical approaches in order to understand how spatial network structures shape ecological communities. I see myself as a “meta-population/-community/-ecosystems” ecologist, and I’m generally interested in processes such as species invasions, dispersal and range shifts. Within that research line we are also developing novel techniques, such as environmental DNA (eDNA), to quantify diversity in aquatic systems.
A second, parallel line of research is to understand how plant-insect interactions can be used to predict phenological changes, extinction dynamics or novel trophic interactions.
2. Can you describe you research career?
I did my undergraduate studies at the University of Basel, Switzerland, focusing on plant and community ecology, as well as on evolutionary and conservation biology. I continued with a Masters and PhD under the supervision of Dieter Ebert at University of Basel and at Tvaerminne Zoological Station, studying Daphnia in rock pools. I first focused on host-parasite interactions, but then early on switched to metapopulation and metacommunity ecology, studying the significance of ephemeral populations on dispersal dynamics in a natural Daphnia metapopulation. After my PhD I left academia for two years, working in a consultancy company doing biodiversity monitoring. Realizing that science and academia are where I want to be, I entered back in, doing a Postdoc at UC Davis with Marcel Holyoak. There I learned about the protist microcosm system, which I have been using ever since to address questions in spatial ecology. In 2011, I started my own research group at Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science an Technology) [link: http://www.eawag.ch/about/personen/homepages/altermfl/index_EN] . Since summer 2014 I hold an SNSF Research Professorship in Community Ecology at University of Zurich [link: http://www.ieu.uzh.ch/staff/professors/altermatt.html], in a joint setting with Eawag, where my lab is based.
3. How come that you became a scientist in ecology?
Already as a kid I was interested in biology. I still remember the day where I found my first caterpillars of the Small tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae). Luckily, my parents gave me a box to rear them, a book to identify them, and encouraged me to take notes of my observations. That’s why I can pin down my interests in ecology to an exact date. During high-school I always knew that I wanted to become a biologist, but for a long time thought of becoming a classic entomologist or even taxonomist at a Museum, given my passion for Lepidoptera. During a highly inspiring course on evolutionary biology in Guarda in the Swiss Alps, originally developed by Steve Stearns (http://www.evolution.unibas.ch/teaching/guarda/guarda_history.htm) and then run by Dieter Ebert, Tad Kawecki, Mark Kirkpatrick and Sebastian Bonhoeffer, I realized that it was all about finding the right and interesting questions. I wanted to do experiments, test concepts and hypotheses, and that’s when it became obvious that ecology and evolution are the fields I wanted to enter, and I never regretted it!
4. What do you do when you're not working?
At the moment I enjoy a lot of family time with my two-years old son, cooking, doing some garden work etc. Next to that, I very much enjoy being outdoors, hiking or road biking. Ever since my childhood I have also been a very keen naturalist, and black-lighting in the peat bogs near my home or searching rare butterflies in the Alps is among my most favorite activities.
Personal Webpage: http://www.ieu.uzh.ch/staff/professors/altermatt.html
Web-page of the Altermatt lab: http://homepages.eawag.ch/~altermfl/Home.html
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