Photo: Markus Marcetic/YAS
I work in biogeography, a topic within biology that investigates how climate, the environment and the landscape influence biodiversity. Why are there so many more species in Amazonia than in a Swedish spruce forest? Where do all the plants and animals in these regions come from, when did they diverge from their closest relatives, and how will they be affected by ongoing climatic and environmental changes? These are some of the questions that my research group and I try to answer by analysing present-day and past data from millions of years ago. By assessing how different species and ecosystems were affected by previous periods of global warming and other drastic events - such as the meteorite that killed all dinosaurs except for birds - we try to understand which features characterise winners and losers. Robust estimates are needed to influence political opinion and thereby focus global resources on the most important threats against biodiversity.
Born: 1978
Family: Wife Anna, children Gabriel (born 2004) and the twins Clara and Maria (born 2006)
Interests: Running (a couple of times per week together with colleagues in the beautiful Botanic Garden and Änggårdsbergen), carpentry with the kids, collecting bugs, and photography.
By being a member of the Young Academy of Sweden, I hope to discuss specific issues that I have often pondered but have not had a good platform to work on or receive enough attention for. As a recently promoted professor with a foreign background and three children, I have gained experiences and thoughts that I would like to share and use to improve the conditions for research in Sweden in general, and the conditions for young people and immigrants in particular. I believe that Sweden is a good research country but can become even better. The path to improvement should be proposed and developed to a large extent by young researchers.
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