Teaching

2011-2015            advanced MSc seminar “Current Aspects of Vertebrate Evolution” Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany

2011-2015             introductory BSc course “Zoological Biodiversity” Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany

2010-2015             introductory BSc course “Animal Morphology and Systematics” Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany

2010-2015             advanced BSc seminar “Evolutionary Developmental Biology” Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Germany

2003                     lecture “Evolutionary Developmental Biology of Amphibians”, Leiden University, The Netherlands

1998-2000             course "Cytology", Humboldt-University at Berlin, Germany

Awards and Honours

2003                     Katharina Heinroth Award of the Berlin Society of Researching Friends, founded 1773, for outstanding Diploma Thesis

Grants

2015                     grant-in-aid,German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) Hamburg, for scanning specimens using synchrotron radiation

2013                     grant-in-aid,German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) Hamburg, for scanning specimens using synchrotron radiation

2013                     German Science Foundation (DFG) Research Grant (MU2914/2-1)

2012                     European Union SYNTHESYS collection study grant to visit the collection of the Natural History Museum London for 3 weeks

2012                     European Union SYNTHESYS collection study grant to visit the collection of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle Paris for 8 days   

2011                     Species conservation grant, Mohammed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund

2011                     grant-in-aid, German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) Hamburg, for scanning specimens using synchrotron radiation

2011                     Junior faculty enhancement grant, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena

2010                     European Science Foundation (ESF) Frontiers of Speciation Research (FroSpects) Short Visit Grant

2010                     Main collaborator on Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) Research Grant to S. Loader, Basel University

2010                     grant-in-aid, German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) Hamburg, for scanning specimens using synchrotron radiation

2009                     Putnam Expedition Grant, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, for fieldwork in Tanzania

2009                     grant-in-aid, German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) Hamburg, for scanning specimens using synchrotron radiation

2009                     Bruce Family Scholarship in Herpetology, Highlands Biological Station

2008                     grant-in-aid, German Electron Synchrotron (DESY) Hamburg, for scanning specimens using synchrotron radiation

2007                     3 year Postdoctoral Fellowship, Volkswagen Stiftung

2006                     Percy Sladen Memorial Fund travel grant for fieldwork in Thailand

2006                     European Union SYNTHESYS collection study grant to visit the collection of the Natural History Museum Berlin for 3 weeks

2005                     Systematics Association student bursary to attend the Systematics Association Biennial Conference in Cardiff, Wales, 22.-26. August 2005

Fieldwork

Student Supervision

Susan Schweiger, Jena University

PhD thesis (ongoing): “Evolution of terrestrial development in anurans”

Diploma thesis (completed 02/2012): “Skeletal and muscular development in the direct developing frog Arthroleptis xenodactyloides (Anura: Arthroleptidae)”

independent research project (completed): “Embryonic development of the direct developing frog Arthroleptis xenodactyloides (Anura: Arthroleptidae)

H. Christoph Liedtke, Basel University

PhD thesis (ongoing): “Life history and biogeography: a comparative evolutionary study of the terrestrialization of African amphibians.” (co-supervised with Dr. S. Loader, Basel University)

Paul Lukas, Jena University

BSc thesis (completed 09/2012): Head morphology of the tadpole of Hemisus marmoratus (Amphibia: Anura: Hemisotidae).

Sandra Triepel, Jena University

Diploma thesis (completed 10/2012): “A morphometric analysis of cranial morphology in Desmognathus (Amphibia: Plethodontidae).”

Nadine Pömpner, Jena University

Constanze Sänger, Jena University

Diploma thesis (completed 10/2011): “Head morphology of adult and larval Rhyacotriton (Caudata: Rhyacotritonidae): systematic and evolutionary implications.”

Mareike Klinger, Jena University

Joanna G. Larson, Harvard University

independent undergraduate research project (completed and published as: A leucistic larva of Pseudotriton ruber. Herp Review 42:406.)

independent undergraduate research project (completed): “Barcoding of East African tadpoles”

Invited Workshop Participation

AmphibiaTree (NSF Tree of Life Project): University of Texas at Austin (December 2004); University of Kansas (November 2006)

Amphibian Anatomical Ontology (NSF): St. Louis, Missouri (November 2008); Kansas City, Kansas (November 2009); Punta del Este (July 2010)

Invited Seminars

2015                      Department of Biogeography, Trier University, Germany

2013                      Institute of Biology, Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany

2013                      Department of Biology, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia

2011                      Institute of Biogeography, Basel University, Switzerland

2009                      Senckenberg Natural History Collections Dresden, Germany

2008                      Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley, USA

2008                      Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA

2006                      Department of Systematic Zoology, Natural History Museum Berlin, Germany

2006                      Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Leiden University, The Netherlands

2006                      Institute of Systematic Zoology, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany

Presentations

Invited Symposium and Plenary Talks

2012                      Annual Meeting of the German Zoological Society

2007, 2010             International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology

2006                      First and Founding Meeting of the European Society for Evolutionary Developmental  Biology

2005, 2012             World Congress of Herpetology

Major Conferences

Argentinean Congress of Herpetology

Poster presentation: 2005

European Society for Evolutionary Biology

Poster presentation: 2011

European Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology

Poster presentation: 2006, 2010

German Zoological Society

Poster presentation: 2003, 2010

Oral presentation: 2002, 2010

International Congress of Vertebrate Morphology

Poster presentation: 2001, 2007, 2010

Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists

Oral presentation: 2008

Poster presentation: 2009

Palherp Meeting

Oral presentation: 2007

Systematics Association Biennial Meeting

Oral presentation: 2003, 2005

Systematics Association/NHM joint meeting

Poster Presentation: 1999

World Congress of Herpetology

      Poster Presentation: 2012

Professional Service and Membership

Section Editor Herpetology Notes (since 2014)

Student Talk Judge: American Society of Ichthyologist and Herpetologists, Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, 2009 and 2012

Project member www.tanzaniaherps.org, a website dedicated to Tanzanian amphibians and reptiles

Contributor to Amphibian Anatomical Ontology www.amphibanat.org

American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Herpetologie und Terrarienkunde

Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft

European Society of Evolutionary Biologists

European Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology

Herpetological Association of Africa

Herpetologists League

International Society for the History and Bibliography of Herpetology

International Society of Vertebrate Morphologists

Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology

Society for the History of Natural History

Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles