People

Dagmara Żyła, PhD

She is a beetle curator and the head of the Coleoptera Section at the Zoological Museum Hamburg (Germany), the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change. Dagmara's research focuses on taxonomy, systematics, and the natural history of the largest family of animals, rove beetles (Staphylinidae). She combines traditional taxonomy and systematics with modern analytical approaches to understand the evolutionary processes underlying their past and present biodiversity and distribution. 

Dagmara is the Principal Investigator in the PaETM project.

Katarzyna Koszela, PhD

She is a post-doc in the PaETM project focused on phylogenomics and bioinformatics, based in the Museum and Institute of Zoology, Warsaw (Poland). Until the end of her doctorate, Kasia's primary subject of research was the biology of one of the most invasive plants genus - Fallopia. The next stage was a gradual shift of interest towards entomology to answer evolutionary questions within the largest groups of beetles - Staphylinidae. In the current project, she is experimenting with modern sequencing techniques and exploring the usefulness of various bioinformatics tools.

Yoan Camilo Guzman Sarmiento, PhD

He is a post-doc in the PaETM project focused on biogeography and bioinformatics, based in the Museum and Institute of Zoology, Warsaw (Poland). Camilo is a Colombian entomologist interested in the ecology and evolution of insect symbiosis. He worked with predators, parasitoids, entomopathogenic nematodes, and Wolbachia bacterial symbionts. Likewise, he enjoys field trips, learning about insects and meeting new people. Currently, he is immersed in the challenging world of rove beetles.

Alexandra Tokareva, MSc

She is a PhD student in our lab, working on the part of the PaETM project based in the Museum and Institute of Zoology, Warsaw (Poland). The main goal of Alexandra's PhD research is building the first genus-level phylogeny of Paederinae using genomic and morphological data. Her previous research project was focused on the rove beetle genus Oxyporus in Russia. Mainly, her expertise is taxonomy and morphology, while currently, she gets experience in phylogenomics.

Karen Vanessa Bonilla Farinango, BSc

She was a visiting scientist in LIB in Oct-Dec 2022 where she received training in Staphylinidae identification. Karen has graduated from the Ecosystem Engineer program at IKIAM, and she has worked mainly with insect composition in the Ecuadorian Amazon, collaborating on projects such as BIO-GEEC: German-Ecuadorian Biodiversity Consortium and Bee-va la vida: knowledge for the conservation of native Amazonian bees. Karen also participated in our field work in Ecuador. Now, she is a MSc student at INPA, Manaus, Brazil and plans to do her MSc project in collaboration with Dagmara. Karen's main interest is studying systematics and biodiversity.

Jasmin Schreiber, BSc

She is in the master's program in biology at the University of Hamburg and is conducting research on Staphylinidae for her master's thesis. She also publishes books and teaches at the National Institute for Science Communication (NaWik).

Laurele Gerke

She studies geoscience at the University of Hamburg. Currently, Laurele is working on the digitalization of the entomology collection. Being interested in palaeontology, her bachelor thesis will be about Baltic amber Paederinae.

Emily Pierau

She is studying geoscience at the University of Hamburg. In her Bachelor thesis she will work with Paederinae in Baltic amber.

Priscila Saraiva

She studies biology at the University of Hamburg. In her Bachelor's thesis, she is comparing the biodiversity of rove beetles in protected and unprotected areas of the Jenischpark in Hamburg. Priscila currently also works on identifying beetles for the INPEDIV project of the LIB.

Kerly Jessenia Moncaleano Robledo, PhD

She is an agronomist with experience in genetic transformation, molecular/cellular biology, tissue culture, and microscopy techniques. She participated in the in-vitro propagation project for cochineal-resistant forage palms. In her PhD, Jessenia studied the role of age-regulatory pathways in the growth and development of Passifloraceae and its possible role in the interaction with ants supporting functional transcriptome analyses. Currently, she is part of the PaETM project working on updating the database of the Paederinae subfamily.