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.

Katarzyna Koszela, PhD

She is a technician at Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change at the Museum of Nature Hamburg. Her main interest is the genus Paederus and its endosymbionts. She is also experimenting with modern sequencing techniques and exploring the usefulness of various bioinformatics tools.

Karen Vanessa Bonilla Farinango, MSc

Karen is currently a PhD student at the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), focusing on the systematics and phylogeny of Neotropical genera within the subtribe Cryptobiina (Paederinae). She graduated with a Master's degree from the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA) in Manaus, Brazil, where her research focused on the biodiversity of Paederinae, both projects conducted with Dagmara as co-advisor. 

Elisabeth Körs, MSc

She is a Biology student at the University of Hamburg in the MSc program. For her Master’s thesis, she was working on forensic entomology with a focus on beetles, particularly Staphylinidae. She is interested in comparing which beetles and when are coming to the carcasses in different habitats.

Carlos Moreno, 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.

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.

Laurele Gerke, BSc

She studies Geoscience at the University of Hamburg as a MSc student. Additionally, Laurele is working on the digitalization of the entomology collection. Being interested in palaeontology, her Bachelor thesis was about Baltic amber Paederinae. The future MSc project will use fossil rove beetles to answer questions for historical biogeography of Paederinae.

Emily Pierau, BSc

She studies Geoscience at the University of Hamburg as a MSc student. Currently, she is working on the digitalization of the entomology collection, but soon will start her MSc project on fossil rove beetles. Her Bachelor thesis was about Baltic amber Paederinae.

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 works on comparison of rove beetle species composition in protected and semi-protected peat areas in Hamburg. She also publishes books and teaches at the National Institute for Science Communication (NaWik).

Guilherme Eduardo Ciamponi

He is a Biological Sciences student at the São Carlos Federal University in Brazil. For his Bachelor's thesis, he is studying the genetic diversity of rove beetles found in tropical forest protected areas in Rio de Janeiro with Dagmara as a co-advisor. His main interests in Biology are protected areas, genetic diversity and population genetics.

Moritz Fehr

He is a Biology student at the University of Hamburg who has recently joined our group and is starting his adventure with rove beetles. For his MSc project, he will focus on the species delimitation analyses.

Lisa Hattesen

She is a Biology student at the University of Hamburg. Lisa is working on different samples collected by our research group. Her Bachelor thesis is going to be about Staphylinidae diversity in the nature reserve ‘Boberger Niederung’ in Hamburg. She will focus on biodiversity comparison between different habitats in the reserve and potential range shifts of Staphylinidae.

Amanda Montanhini

She is a Biology student at the Universidade de São Paulo who is working on rove beetles from the Neotropics. For her Bachelor‘s project, she will focus on the diversity of myrmecophilous Paederinae.

Priscila Saraiva, BSc

She is a MSc student in Biology at the University of Hamburg. In her Bachelor's thesis, she was comparing the biodiversity of rove beetles in protected and unprotected areas of the Jenischpark in Hamburg. After the defence, Priscila continues working on beetles and provide technical support for molecular lab work.

Phoebe Shubin

She studies Natural Resources Conservation at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and her passion is taxonomy and systematics, especially concerning Staphylinidae. She currently finishes her BSc project concerning scale insects, but is working towards developing a PhD project together with Dagmara.

Imke Schuldt

She is a Biology student at the University of Hamburg. Soon she will be starting her Bachelor's project on Staphylinidae.

Lilly Widderich

She is a Biology student at the University of Hamburg who is working on rove beetles from Japan. For her Bachelor‘s thesis she will focus on the diversity of Paederinae at Okinawa Island.

Yoan Camilo Guzman Sarmiento, PhD

Camilo worked with us from 2022 to 2024 in the PaETM project. Currently, he is a postdoc at the Department of Developmental Biology and Morphology of Invertebrates, Jagiellonian University. 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. We continue to collaborate on different projects concerning Neotropical rove beetles.