We warmly welcome our new Postdoctoral Fellow Somya Mani to the KLI! Somya Mani is a theoretical biologist, and has studied evolutionary transitions in genetic, cellular and multicellular systems. She received her PhD from the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, India, where she studied the evolution of the eukaryotic cell through mathematical modeling. During her postdoctoral research at the Institute for Basic Science in South Korea, she began to build her research on developmental evolution, and also produced the first modeling framework for the study of de novo gene birth. In general, her work involves building mathematical models to capture evolution of biological systems using tools from physics and mathematics, particularly statistics and graph theory. (Click on title to continue...)

We are very happy to welcome our new Post-doc Fellow Silvia Basanta to the KLI. Silvia completed her PhD under the guidance of Prof. Mihaela Pavlicev, and has recently been awarded a doctoral degree from the University of Vienna for her thesis titled, “The evolution of signalling in mammalian pregnancy”. Silvia has an academic background both in philosophy as well as biology. During her post-doc research at the KLI, Silvia will investigate how the female body has been portrayed in contemporary evolutionary biology. (Click on title to read more.)

We are very happy to welcome our new Fellow Visitor Sean Pears to the KLI. Sean is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Philosophy in Biology and Medicine at the University of Bordeaux, with a focus on the philosophy of biology, particularly evolutionary theory and the expanded evolutionary synthesis. He will be at the KLI for two months, from September 1 to October 31, 2024. During his time at the KLI, Sean will be working on his project titled, ‘Eco-Evo-Devo and Restoration: Cultivating Evolvable Socio-Ecosystems’.

We are pleased to welcome our new Writing-Up Fellow Saudat Alishayeva to the KLI. Saudat is pursuing her PhD in the lab of Luisa F. Pallares, Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max Planck Society, Tuebingen, Germany, where she is investigating the effects of environmental stresses on the evolution of complex traits in Drosophila melanogaster. She will be at the KLI from 1 September 2025 to 26 February 2026. (Click on title to read more).

We are happy to welcome our new Visiting Fellow Ronald Planer to the KLI. Ronald is currently a Lecturer in the School of Liberal Arts at the University of Wollongong, Australia. He will be with us at the KLI from 1st Oct to 23rd Dec 2025. (Click on title to read more.)

We are happy to welcome back Richard Gawne as Visiting Fellow to the KLI. Rick is an evolutionary developmental biologist and an alumnus of KLI. He is currently working as Curator of Natural History at the Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas. At the KLI, from 1 to 30 September 2025, Richard will be working on his project titled: “Wing Size and Shape as Mechanisms of Evolvability in Lepidopteran Color Patterns.” (Click on title to read more.)

We are very happy to welcome our new Writing-Up Fellow Paul Knabl to the KLI! Paul is currently a PhD student in the Vienna Doctoral School of Ecology and Evolution (VDSEE), University of Vienna, where he works at the Department of Neurosciences and Developmental Biology. At the KLI, he will be working on his project, “Developmental roles of Bone Morphogenetic Protein signaling in Cnidaria” from 1st February to 31st July 2025. Here’s wishing Paul a hearty welcome and a productive time at the KLI. (Click on the title to know more about Paul!)

We are delighted to welcome our new Postdoctoral Fellow, Pascal Hagolani, to the KLI. Pascal is an evolutionary biologist with a robust computational background, focused on advancing our understanding of complex biological systems. At the KLI, Pascal will work on his project, “Urban Evolution,” in which he will develop a comparative framework between urban and biological genotype-phenotype maps (GPMs) and create computational models to investigate urban evolutionary dynamics.

We are happy to welcome our new Writing-Up Fellow Oryan Zacks to the KLI. Oryan is a PhD student in the Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas at Tel Aviv University under the supervision of Prof. Eva Jablonka. Her research interest lies in the evolution of imagination. (Click on title to read more.)

We are very happy to welcome our new Writing-up Fellow Onerva Kiianlinna to the KLI. Onerva Kiianlinna is in the final phase of her PhD at the Doctoral Programme in Philosophy, Arts and Society, University of Helsinki, Finland. Her research interests lie in evolutionary aesthetics, especially in the relationship between philosophical and empirical aesthetics. Her PhD research project is titled “Aesthetic Judging in Contemporary Evolutionary Aesthetics”. Onerva aims to ‘provide perspectives on how the act of aesthetic judging could and should be understood in contemporary evolutionary aesthetics’.

We are very happy to have our new Postdoctoral Fellow Olesya Bondareko at the KLI! Olesya has recently defended her PhD in History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge. Her current research focuses on the integration between genomics and the social sciences including psychology, sociology, and social policy-oriented research. Olesya was born and grew up in Ukraine which continues to suffer from the Russian invasion. You can help Ukrainian medics save lives by donating to https://www.hospitallers.org.uk/ or https://www.leleka.care/. (Click on the title to know more about Olesya!)

We are very happy to welcome Nora Hein to the KLI! Nora is a student in the master's program Organic Agricultural Systems and Agroecology at BOKU University in Vienna, where she had previously obtained a master's degree in Environment and Bio-Resources Management. At the KLI, Nora is working as a research assistant in the EU project PLUS Change, which uses a transdisciplinary perspective to investigate land use strategies and decision-making processes to address social, climate, and biodiversity objectives.

We are delighted to welcome our new Writing-Up Fellow Nina Kraus to the KLI. Nina is currently working towards her PhD at the University of Vienna within the Vienna Doctoral School of Ecology and Evolution. Nina's research interest is in the realm of evolutionary medicine, specifically the evolutionary history of cardiogenesis and its implications for congenital heart diseases (CHD) in humans. Nina has studied and published her work on the development of the anuran heart for her her Master's thesis. Her PhD research explores how environmental factors influence the evolution and development of cardiac structures in humans. During her Fellowship at the KLI, from 1st March to 31st August 2025, Nina will be working on her project titled. “Environmental Drivers of Cardiac Evolution and Development”. (Click on title to read more.)

We are very happy to welcome our new Writing-Up Fellow Merin Joji to the KLI! Merin is currently pursuing her PhD degree from the University of Copenhagen, studying the intricate patterns of shell shape variation in fresh water turtles in India, and how these variations relate to both ecological and anthropogenic factors. At the KLI, Merin will be working on her project, “3D shell asymmetry as a monitoring tool for environmental stress in India’s freshwater turtles”, from 15 Feb to 14 August 2025. Here’s wishing Merin a hearty welcome and a fruitful time at the KLI. (Click on the title to know more about Merin!)

We are happy to welcome our new Senior Post-Doctoral Fellow Mauricio Gonzalez-Forero to the KLI. Mauricio is an evolutionary biologist working at the interface of biology, mathematics, and anthropology. He received his undergraduate degree in Biology in 2006 at the University of Antioquia in Colombia, and his PhD degree in 2013 from the University of Tennessee in the USA. Mauricio has worked as a post-doc researcher at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland (2013-2016), and the University of St Andrew in the UK, first as a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow (2016-2018), and then as a Research Fellow (2018-2024). (Click on title to read more.)

We are happy to welcome Visiting Fellow Martin Brüne to the KLI! Martin is currently Professor of Psychiatry and Head of the Division of Social Neuropsychiatry and Evolutionary Medicine at the LWL University-Hospital, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany. During his fellowship at the KLI from 27 October to 11 November 2025, he will be working on his project, “Evolution in Psychotherapy.” Here’s wishing Martin a productive time at the KLI!

We are very happy to welcome our new Fellow Visitor Martin Andreas Schmid to the KLI. Martin is an environmental historian trained in history and archaeology. He studies the biophysical and symbolic relationships of society with nature since c. 1500 with focus on Austria and Europe. He currently holds the position of Associate Professor for Environmental History at the Department of Economics and Social Sciences (WiSo), University of Natural Resources & Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU). Martin’s KLI project is titled, “What Is Socio-Ecological Industrialization in Co-Evolutionary Terms?”

We are very happy to welcome our new Writing-up Fellow Marta Gómez-Recio to the KLI. Marta is currently a PhD student at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Spain, where she investigates human respiratory kinematics and their relationship to torso morphology. During her fellowship at the KLI, Marta’s project, “From Shape to Function: Evolutionary Dynamics of Human Breathing through 4D Geometric Morphometrics” aims to explore the relationship between torso shape and breathing kinematics in modern humans, with an emphasis on its evolutionary significance. (Click on title to read more.)

We are very happy to welcome our new Post-Doctoral Fellow Marcelo Domingos de Santis to the KLI. Marcelo is trained in Systematics and Phylogenetics. He received his Ph.D degree in Zoology in 2021 from the University of São Paulo, Brazil, and has had Postdoc experiences at the Museu Nacional, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2022-23), and the Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels, Bonn, Germany (2023-24). In his current research, Marcelo is interested in exploring new paths to address systematic problems, such as using EvoDevo research in phylogenetics. (Click on title to read more.)

Schoenmakers’ project “The Origins of Evolution” examines the application of evolutionary theory to the origin and early development of life.