Ecologist, botanist, naturalist, and environmental educator.
Environmental scientist with a PhD in Ecology from the University of Zurich, previously postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University and at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), currently Principal Investigator of the Biodiversity Change group at University of Lausanne and Assistant Professor of Botany at University of Milan.
I study biodiversity, ecological networks, and ecosystem functioning, paying particular attention to the causes and consequences of biodiversity change. My research focuses on species and human–environment interactions as well as on responses of communities to global change.
I participated in and directed several international research projects, taught a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses in different countries as well as mentored and supervised students from different cultural backgrounds.
Associate editor of 'Plant Ecology & Diversity' and 'Journal of Plant Ecology', member of 'Frontiers in Ecology & Evolution' editorial board.
Pursues science education, public outreach and community activism for proactively facilitating all people and diversities in science, increasing social equality and improving environmental justice.
01/2022 - 12/2024 Professor of Botany, Department of Biosciences, University of Milan
11/2021 - present Head of Biodiversity Change group, Swiss NSF Ambizione Fellow, Faculty of Geosciences and Environment, University of Lausanne
01/2022 - 12/2024 Tenure-track Assistant Professor of Botany, Department of Biosciences, University of Milan
03/2020 Visiting PI. Agua Salud project, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
01/2020 - 08/2021 Postdoctoral researcher, Swiss NSF Fellow. Dirzo Lab, Stanford University
02/2018 - 05/2018 Swiss NSF Visiting scientist. Biogeography and Ecology Lab, University of the Aegean
10/2017 - 12/2019 Postdoctoral researcher. Biocommunication and Ecology group, ETH Zurich
05/2016 - 06/2016 Visiting researcher. Group of Biodiversity and Conservation, University Rey Juan Carlos
10/2014 - 09/2017 Ph.D. Ecology. University of Zurich. Advisors: Christian Schöb, Bernhard Schmid, Jordi Bascompte
06/2014 - 09/2014 Botanist. Biodiversity Monitoring program. Stelvio National Park.
01/2012 - 04/2014 M.Sc. Natural Sciences. University of Milan. Advisor: Marco Caccianiga
09/2010 - 07/2011 European Mobility Fellow, EU FP7 Erasmus programme, University of Salamanca
10/2008 - 12/2011 B.Sc. Natural Sciences. University of Milan. Advisor: Marco Caccianiga
After a Bachelor in Biology, I obtained an interdisciplinary Master in Behaviour, Evolution, and Conservation with a minor in Geoscience, Ecology, and Environment at the University of Lausanne.
I am passionate about ecological research; how species are interconnected between them and with their environment. I am sensitive to the impact that we have on those connections and its repercussion on the planet and for future. I try to integrate those aspect into my research. I previously studied the effect of human mediated land-cover on ants community structure as my master thesis. In addition to my studies, I am also the co-creator of a student collective on climate crisis at UNIL.
For my PhD studies, I’ll study the effect of glacier retreat on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. I’ll try to understand relationships between alpine species and how they are modified by melting glaciers around. To that end, I'll do multidisciplinary research in mountain ecosystems by integrating global warming, biodiversity change, and molecular ecology. I find the mountain environment fascinating and enjoy spending time in the Alps. Having the opportunity to solve some mysteries around the alpine environment is truly exciting.
01/2022 - present PhD student in Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Geoscience and Environment, University of Lausanne
08/2020 - 07/2021 Research Internship, Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne
03/2020 - 06/2020 Student assistant, Cetre Interdisciplinaire de Recherche sur la Montagne
09/2019 - 02/2021 Master of Science in Behaviour, Evolution, Conservation, with minor in Geoscience and Ecology, Faculty of Biology, University of Lausanne. Advisor: Cleo Bertelsmeier
05/2019 - 06/2019 Research Internship, Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne
09/2018 - 02/2019 Research Internship, Department of Fundamental Microbiology, University of Lausanne
2017 - 2018 Student Mobility (2 semesters) at Stellenbosch University, South Africa
09/2014 - 06/2018 Bachelor of Science in Biology, Faculty of Biology, University of Lausanne
After a Bachelor degree in Biology with a focus on taxonomy and conservation of the Magnoliaceae family in Vietnam, I pursued a Master’s degree in Plant Science at the University of Milano and University Grenoble Alpes. My strong research interests in Botany are biodiversity, ecological networks and conservation. For my Master thesis, I studied the effects of glacier retreat on biodiversity and plant–insect interaction dynamics. Now, I'm doing a PhD in Environmental Sciences.
Coming from the tropical country of Vietnam, studying and doing research in the Alps is one of my dreams, a way to enlarge my scientific research and also to understand the impact of global warming on one of the important mountain ecosystem where we appreciate the amazing landscape.
12/2022 - present PhD student in Sustainable Development and Climate Change, University of Milan and Istituto Universitario di Studi Superiori
04/2021 - 12/2022 Research Fellow and Lecturer, Gimnasio Campestre
01/2020 - 06/2020 Scientific evidence researcher, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), UK government
03/2019 - 11/2019 Researcher and member of the Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford
11/2018 - 03/2019 Training course on “Interdisciplinary Food Systems”, IFSTAL
09/2018 - 11/2019 MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management, University of Oxford
11/2017 - 03/2018 Lab technician, Wolfson Carbon Capture Laboratory
06/2015 - 06/2018 BSc in Marine Biology and Zoology, Bangor University
After receiving my MSc in Geographic Information Science at Beijing Normal University, I have started my PhD at University of Lausanne since October 2022.
During my master, my research focused on the impact of ecological restoration on evapotranspiration in greening areas.
Now, I am passionate about understanding the impact of climate change on eco-hydrological processes in mountainous areas.
Funded by China Scholarship Council of the Chinese Ministry of Education.
Co-supervised with Prof. Nadav Peleg.
Having studied mathematics up to my Master's degree and then going on to do a PhD in biology, I find myself at the frontier between the two disciplines. I'm particularly interested in conservation biology and the impact of climate change on biodiversity.
05/2024 - present Postdoctoral position in the MITEX project (University of Milan & University of Turin)
09/2019 - 02/2023 PhD in ecology, evolution and modelling on the collective motion of locusts (University of Montpellier)
03/2019 - 09/2019 Research Engineer on the development of statistical methods to detect pleiotropy (University of Pau)
09/2017 - 09/2018 Master degree in Mathematics and Biostatistics (University of Montpellier)
09/2013 - 08/2016 Bachelor's degree in Mathematics (University of Nantes)
Co-supervised with Dr. Ludovica Oddi.
I’m research assistant recently graduated at University of Milan with a master in environmental sciences.
My interests are focused on plant sciences, soils, and ecosystems. During my studies I had the opportunity to improve my knowledge of Natural Sciences and learn different research techniques.
My work is about the impact of spruce plantation on the native ecosystems of Italian Prealps. The study includes plants and arthropods samplings and field experiment of agroforestry to understand how native forest could be restored. I also worked as supervisor of two bachelor’s degree thesis on the same argument.
Currently, I'm study plant chemical diversity.
After obtaining a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Science, I am now pursuing a Master’s in Biogeoscience at the University of Milan.
I am passionate about understanding the complexity of interactions within ecosystem communities and developing innovative conservation strategies.
My current thesis explores how alpine ecosystems are responding to global change. By combining field observations with eDNA data, I aim to investigate the impact of livestock grazing on communities within rapidly changing proglacial environments.
I am currently completing my studies in Natural Sciences at the University of Milan and working on my thesis which aims to analyze the role of natural selection agent in Swiss proglacial environments.
My interest focuses on understanding the different ecological conditions of proglacial environments due to deglaciation and how plant communities respond and adapt, with a particular interest in soil development.
After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences at the University of Milan (Italy), where I became deeply fascinated by plants, I decided to continue my studies in plant biology. Now, I am completing my master’s in Plant Science through a joint program between the University of Grenoble and the University of Milan.
My thesis project aims in investigating the impact of glacier retreat on pollination networks and plant phytochemical diversity. I am very excited to further fuel my understanding of plant ecology, especially in today’s fragile climatic context.
After obtaining a bachelor’s degree in Natural Sciences with a thesis focusing on the ecosystem services provided by the Lesser Kestrel in the Po Plain, I decided to pursue a master’s degree in Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Milan (Italy).
My current thesis focuses on the trophic interactions between plants and insect pollinators in proglacial environments. I’m greatly interested in the ecological shifts that are happening in these delicate environments due to climate change and I believe a better understanding of these phenomena is necessary to better protect biodiversity.
After completing my BSc and MSc in the Netherlands, I have worked at various research institutions, including Wageningen University and the Joint Research Centre, and I was a field ecologist researching bats and common swifts in the Netherlands, before I came to Switzerland for my doctorate.
My PhD was a co-tutelle between the University of Lausanne and La Sapienza, University of Rome. I researched the current and future distributions of invasive alien species, as well as the fundamentals of modelling tools used for conservation purposes.
In my postdoc, I am again profiting from the expertise of two research groups, namely the Biodiversity Change group and the Spatial Ecology group of the University of Lausanne. Under the umbrella of the Priorit’Ice project, I am working on safeguarding the biodiversity of proglacial areas in the Alps. I am using state-of-the-art modelling tools and specialized data to develop sophisticated projections of future species distributions and to create habitat prioritization maps to guide conservation efforts.
Then: INRAE-CNRS France
Then: Professor at University of Basel
Then: Mountain guide
Then: Research assistant
Then: Research assistant
Then: PhD student
Then: Research assistant and teacher
Then: MSc student
Then: MSc student
Then: PhD student
Then: Master student
Then: Research assistant
Then: Environmental consultancy
Then: PhD student
Then: Master student
Then: Agroecology employee
Then: Botanic garden employee
Conservation biology, Stanford University, USA
Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Agricultural Ecology group, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Bascompte lab, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Ecology and Biogeochemestry of Coastal Systems , University of Bordeaux, France
Functional Ecology, Estación experimetal de zonas áridas, Spain
O'Brien Ecology for life, University Rey Juan Carlos, Spain
Plant Biology, University of Milan, Italy
Spatial Ecology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
CREATE lab, EPFL, Switzerland
Plant Ecology, ETH Zurich
Como Lake Forest, Collettivo di quartiere
Terra Viva Como APS, Associazione di Promozione Sociale