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Personal
data
1967 Born in
Austria
1970-1976 Residence
in Bogotá,
Colombia
1978-1986 Secondary
school
in Austria
1986-1991 Studies of
biology, University of Vienna
1991-1994 PhD
thesis, University of Vienna
1995-1997
Postdoctoral studies
in Costa Rica
1997-2000
Postdoctoral studies
in New York
2001 Research
assistant
at the University of Vienna
2002- Research
scientist
at the Museum Koenig, Bonn
Scientific
background, awards and grants (selection)
1986 - 1991:
Biology courses
at the University of Vienna; diploma thesis on the accessorial heart in
the head of peracarid crustaceans
1992 - 1994:
Doctoral thesis
at the University of Vienna, on the function and evolution of genitalia
in spiders
1995 - 1997:
Postdoctoral
research with W. G. Eberhard at the University of Costa Rica, funded by
two Erwin Schrödinger stipends from the FWF (Sexual selection and
spider genitalia)
1997-2000:
Postdoctoral
research with N. I. Platnick at the American Museum of Natural History,
New York, funded by a Theodore Roosevelt Fellowship (1997), a P. J.
Solomon
Fellowship (1998), and a Kalbfleisch Research Fellowship (1999)
(Revisions
and phylogenetic analyses of New World and Australian pholcid spiders)
1997: Award of a
Smithsonian
Postdoctoral Fellowship (Washington D.C.) (not accepted for reasons of
overlap)
2001: FWF Research
Project
"Phylogeny of pholcid spiders" at the University of Vienna
2001: Promotion
Prizes of
the Austrian Entomological Society and of the Upper Austrian Government
since 2002: Five
DFG
grants, Invited
talks
at the
BEE Seminar in Basel, at the Meeting of Latin American
Arachnologists
in São Pedro, Brazil, at the International Congress of Arachnology, Ghent, at the
International Congress of Zoology, Paris
Peer reviews
for
| American Museum Novitates |
Journal of Insect Behavior |
Annales Zoologici
|
Journal of Morphology |
Arthropoda selecta
|
Journal of Natural History |
Arthropod Structure and Development
|
Journal of Thermal Biology |
Behavioral Ecology
|
Journal of Threatened Taxa |
| Biological Journal of the
Linnean Society |
Journal of Zool. Syst. and Evol. Res. |
Biological Reviews
|
Journal of Zoology |
| Bonner zoologische Beiträge |
National Science Foundation, U.S.A. |
| Canadian Journal of Zoology |
Naturwissenschaften |
Contributions to Zoology
|
Netherlands Journal of Zoology |
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
|
Oikos |
Entomologica Fennica
|
Organisms Diversity & Evolution |
Entomological News
|
Proceedings of the Royal
Society, Series B |
| Entomologische Zeitschrift |
Revista de Biologia Tropical |
| Ethology Ecology & Evolution |
Revista Iberica de Aracnología |
European Journal of Entomology
|
Revue Suisse de Zoologie |
Evolution
|
Science |
| Evolutionary Ecology |
Smithsonian Contributions
to Zoology |
Gayana
|
Tissue and Cell |
| Fauna of Arabia |
Zoologia (Brazil) |
| Frontiers in Zoology |
Zoologica (Stuttgart) |
Invertebrate Biology
|
Zoologica Scripta |
| Invertebrate Systematics |
Zoological Journal of the
Linnean Society |
| Journal of Arachnology |
Zoology |
| Journal of Ethology |
Zootaxa |
Recent
lectures at meetings and congresses (selection)
2001:
International
Congress of Arachnology, South Africa: "Female genitalic dimorphism in
a pholcid spider"
2003: Encontro de
Aracnologos
do Cono Sul, Brazil: "Sexual selection in spiders", "Spider genitalia:
what we know and what we don't" (invited plenary talks)
2004: International
Congress
of Arachnology, Belgium: "Sexual selection research in spiders:
progress and
biases"
(invited plenary talk)
2005: Entomological
Societey
of America, USA: "Asymmetric genitalia in spiders and
insects"
(invited talk)
2007: International Congress of Arachnology, Brazil: "Worldwide
revision of Pholcus and
related genera"
2008: International Congress of Zoology, France: "Sexual selection and
asymmetric genitalia" (invited talk)
2010: International Congress of Arachnology, Poland: "Reconstructing
the
pholcid tree: a progress report"
Research
interests
1. The
function and
evolution of genitalia, with an emphasis on spider genitalia. The
combination
of freeze fixation and histological serial sectioning of spiders
imbedded
in epoxy resin provides a wealth of new data on the functional
morphology
of genitalic structures. Character mapping on cladograms and
morphometric
analyses offer additional insights into the selective pressures that
shape
genitalia.
2. The
phylogeny and
taxonomy of pholcid spiders. The ultimate goal of this line of research
is a complete revision of the entire family at the level of genera. My
latest major project was Pholcus and
close relatives. Next will be the Smeringopines and a few smaller
taxa.
3. The
effects of
biases and constraints in taxonomic work on our understanding of
species
and biodiversity, variation in species-specific characters, sexual
selection
in spiders, and in particular, selection acting on spider genitalia. A
recent focus was on asymmetric genitalia in insects and spiders.
Teaching
The Musuem Koenig
is intimately
tied to the University of Bonn. For a few years, I gave a course on
spiders;
each year the students continued to build a key
to Central European spiders. This course has been temporarily
discontinued.
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