Very proud to announce that Research Foundation – Flanders kindly granted my research proposal on the mechanisms underlying the genomic diversification and global spread of a common parthenogenetic Bryobia garden pest. With this FWO grant (1513719N), which already starts in January 2019, I will generate an extensive genomic and transcriptomic dataset of the common garden pest. The different evolutionary scenarios that explain its great genetic diversity and global distribution will be formally tested on the molecular level. In parallel, I will also investigate how the garden pest overcomes seasonal variation across its geographical range.

I also just finished reading Congo Journey of Redmond O’Hanlon, a travelogue of the naturalist’s wanderings in Congo in search of the enigmatic Mokélé-mbembé, an ancient sauropod living in Lake Télé. Hilarious accounts of his struggles in the African jungle are combined with masterful observations of African wild life (especially on the great diversity of birds).