People

Emmanuel F.A. TOUSSAINT (PI)

I received my PhD from the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich in 2011. After two postdocs respectively at the University of Kansas and at the University of Florida, I joined the Natural History Museum of Geneva in 2019. My research focuses on systematics, phylogenomics and evolution of beetles and butterflies. I am also the curator for Coleoptera, Diptera and Lepidoptera at the MHNG. Click here for a detailed curriculum vitæ.

Marie PAULI (M.Sc. Student)

Marie Pauli

Marie started her M.Sc. dissertation in 2021 and currently works on a phylogeographic study of Carabus (Platycarabus) beetles from Western and Central Europe with a strong focus on the alpine species. She uses the HyRAD-X method to build a robust genomic dataset to understand the species boundaries and evolutionary history of these beetles in combination with niche modelling and morphometrics.

Cody Raul CARDENAS (Ph.D. Student)

Cody Raul Cardenas

Cody started his Ph.D. in 2022 to work on the evolutionary history of the beetle genus Calosoma. He uses UCE loci to infer a comprehensive phylogeny of the group. Based on this phylogenomic framework, he will study the evolution of wing loss and investigate diversification dynamics of these beetles using model-based approaches. He will also be looking at the genomic architecture of wing loss in Calosoma using genome data.

FORMER LAB MEMBERS

Leonardo PLATANIA (visiting Ph.D. Student)

LeoP

Leonardo is a PhD student from the Gomez-Zurita Lab who visited our lab in the fall and winter 2021. He is working on a systematic study of Eumolpinae leaf beetles with a focus on the historical biogeography of the lineages that are found in the Pacific Islands. He is using a molecular phylogeny of the subfamily to tackle important questions relative to the submergence of New Caledonia and the directionality of colonization events in this region.

** DIGITIZATION TEAM **