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 our group.

D.Zyla@leibniz-lib.de

zyladagmara@gmail.com

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.

kat.koszela@gmail.com

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.

yoan.sarmiento@ufv.br

Carlos M. Pires-Silva, MSc

Carlos is a Brazilian entomologist and PhD student at Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo (MZUSP) with Dagmara as co-advisor. His research focuses on the systematics and biology of termitophilous rove beetles, with a special focus on the subfamily Aleocharinae. For his PhD project, he aims to explore the co-evolutionary dynamics between the subtribe Termitogastrina and their termite hosts using genomic data and phylogeographic analysis. His main expertises are taxonomy and morphology, and he loves field trips.

cmpiresilva@gmail.com

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.

alexan4tok@gmail.com 

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.

karen.bonilla@est.ikiam.edu.ec

Elisabeth Körs, BSc


She is a Biology student at the University of Hamburg in the MSc program. For her master’s thesis, she is currently working on forensic entomology with a focus on beetles.

elisabeth.koers@studium.uni-hamburg.de

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).

jasmin.schreiber@studium.uni-hamburg.de

Laurele Gerke, BSc

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 was about Baltic amber Paederinae.

gerkelaurele@gmail.com

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.

Priscila.r.saraiva@gmail.com

Alumni


Kerly Jessenia Moncaleano Robledo, PhD

Emily Pierau, BSc - Thesis: Utility of Synchrotron X-ray Scanning for phylogenetic reconstruction – Paederinae from Bitterfeld amber

Tatjana Turloff, BSc - Thesis: A new Afrotropical genus of Peaderinae (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae) and its phylogenetic position