Past speakers

Carlos A. Jaramillo 

He is a staff scientist with the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. His research investigates the causes, patterns, and processes of tropical biodiversity at diverse scales of time and space. He is also interested in Cretaceous-Cenozoic biostratigraphy of low latitudes, developing methods for high-resolution biostratigraphy, and the paleobiogeography of Tethys. 

Surangi W. Punyasena 

Our lab studies the influence of climate on the composition, structure, and long-term evolution of lowland Neotropical plant communities. We use the fossil pollen record to document plant response to past climate variability. Because pollen and spores are widespread in the terrestrial sediment record, we are able to use these microscopic fossils to study long-term trends in plant ecology and evolution.

         We seek to re-imagine the field of paleoecology and expand the range of ecological and evolutionary hypotheses that can be addressed by increasing the throughput, reproducibility, and taxonomic resolution of an unrecognized source of “big data”– the microfossil record. The focus of our current work is on developing microscopy and computer automation methods to improve the quantity and quality of pollen and spore counts. We are exploring different microscopy techniques, image analysis, and machine learning. With these new tools, we aim to develop larger and more comprehensive data sets that will expand the scope of paleoecological research. Our long-term goal is to transform the paleoecological analysis workflow, from imaging to classification to interpretation. 

Evelyn Kustatscher 

She is Head of the Department of Natural History at the Tyrolean State Museums and a Privatdozent in Palaeontology at LMU Munich. Her research focuses on Permian to Jurassic palaeobotany and palynology, especially the taxonomy, biostratigraphy, and botanical affinities of in situ spores and pollen. She leads several international projects investigating how terrestrial ecosystems responded to events such as supervolcanic eruptions, climate shifts, and mass extinctions. Evelyn combines field-based geology with lab-based palaeobotanical and palynological approaches and is strongly committed to advancing scientific exchange, interdisciplinary collaboration, and mentoring the next generation of palaeontologists.

Carina Hoorn 

Carina Hoorn is a geologist/paleoecologist and associate professor at the University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands). She holds an MSc (1988) and PhD (1994) from this university, and an MSc (2003) in Science Communication from Imperial College London (UK). In 2021 she was awarded the van Waterschoot van der Gracht medal (2021) for achievements in the field of Earth Sciences, the highest distinction a geologist can receive in the Netherlands

Her main research interest is the Cenozoic evolution of biota and sedimentary environments in mountains and peripheral regions. The regions she is most interested are Amazonia, the Andes, Tibet, the Himalayas and SE Asia. She enjoys working in research teams, and together with her collaborators studies the Neogene fossil plant record of western Amazonia and the origin and stages of development of the Amazon River. She is also fascinated by the Cenozoic evolution of steppe-desert plants, even more so after spending some time as a research fellow in Xinjiang province, westernmost China. More recently, her curiosity has driven her to explore the fossil record of Myanmar and Indonesia.

Marc-Elie Adaime 

Marc-Elie is a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Institution's Data Science Lab. His research focuses on developing quantitative approaches to encode phenotypic traits from complex data sources, such as species descriptions and images, and on examining how environmental, developmental, and genetic factors shape adaptation and species distributions, with a particular emphasis on plants. 

During his PhD, he developed methods to quantify subtle, evolutionarily meaningful variation in pollen traits to (1) improve phylogenetic inference when only phenotypic characters are available, including the placement of unknown or extinct taxa in a molecular reference phylogeny; (2) identify adaptations to environmental stressors in plant lineages; and (3) estimate diversity in past plant communities when species-level identifications are uncertain or unavailable. 

In parallel, he studies past environmental change in the eastern Canadian Arctic, primarily inferred from aquatic ecosystems, through field measurements and analyses of microfossils, eDNA, and geochemical proxies.

Julia Gravendyck 

Julia's research focuses on palynology of the Mesozoic; applying and revising taxonomy, nomenclature, looking at teratology, paleoecology, the evolution of early angiosperms, and other palynological enigmas.

In this talk, she focuses on the first appearance of angiosperms in the fossil record. Rather than accepting a rapid Early Cretaceous radiation at face value, she examines whether this pattern reflects biological reality or limits in sampling, stratigraphic resolution, and methodological approach.

She follows the footsteps of early investigators and palynological experts on the matter to reassess early angiosperm records by rethinking classical palynological techniques and applying methodological variations designed to extract overlooked occurrences.