I am broadly interested in ecology, evolution, biogeography and biodiversity and carry out extensive fieldwork in Amazonian rainforests. I study species-environment relationships, spatial patterns in plant community composition, evolutionary relationships among species and drivers of diversification. My pet group is the ferns, but I collaborate with researchers focusing on other groups. I am also interested in theoretical and methodological issues related to beta diversity.
I have taught a variety of courses at all levels with topics ranging from multivariate statistics and remote sensing to tropical plant families and human evolution. Currently I am responsible for the MSc course "Tropical Ecosystem management and Human Security", and I also teach on the BSc courses "Eucaryotes (plants)" and "Ecology". I also supervise BSc, MSc and PhD students in ecology and biodiversity research.
