Current Instructors

Danijela is a reefer - she studies everything reef and especially coral related, but mainly macroevolutionary trends of coral traits and emergence of novel reef communities in deep time. She doesn’t start her day without coffee and can’t imagine her life without music, books, yoga, and nature.

Emma investigates how deep-time biodiversity is driven by various environmental, geological, and socio-economic factors. She is particularly interested in the diversity and biogeographic patterns of fossil vertebrates, such as dinosaurs, squamates, and other reptiles. Although her research is mostly desk-based, her favourite place to be is outdoors in nature, and she have an encyclopedic knowledge of dog breeds (especially the goofy ones!).

Michael is primarily interested in Earth System research and uses isotopic and trace element proxies to document environmental changes in deep time. His research focuses on the evolution of the global carbon cycle, ocean temperature and anoxia, with particular emphasis on times of crisis, such as the end-Permian or the Late Devonian mass extinction events.

Wolfgang is interested in everything paleobiology and climate, but corals and radiolarians are his absolute favorites. He is a lead author of the IPCC. He is always busy, but he will always find the time to play with a dog that crosses his path.

Adam’s primary interest is in global spatial patterns of biodiversity dynamics, simulation models, software and database development. He is a true computer nerd and likes to spend time with music, cycling around and reading books about the mysteries of the human mind.

Birgit knows almost everything there is to know about sample preparation. She reigns supreme in the Lab building, but when she is not doing her preparatory magic, she is a coach teaching artistic swimming.

Laura is curious about phylogenetic models used in paleobiology, especially in the adequacy of the morphological substitution models. She is also really interested in cell type evolution and in dating the origin of cell types. She loves an opportunity travel, pretending to be able to speak Irish and the food trucks on Thursdays!

Axel's scientific heart beats for carbonate rocks, more precisely for the microfacies and diagenesis of carbonate rocks. Furthermore, he works on the climate evolution in the middle Paleozoic.

Sebastian’s main interest are habitat forming organisms – worldwide, but especially in the Arctic. In trying to get a better understanding of ecosystems, he loves to combine field research and data analytics. As being outdoors is the best, he spends his free time with hiking and mountaineering.

Rachel is interested in what we can learn from the fossil record using tree building (phylogenetic) tools. Her work combines molecular, morphological, stratigraphic and environmental data, and involves both method development and empirical case studies. She's a big Eurovision fan and recently overcame a fear of dogs, which is fortunate because there are a lot around Erlangen!