Positions
07/2025–present Deep-Sea Benthic Ecologist Earth Sciences New Zealand (previously NIWA)
02/2025–06/2025 Deep-Sea Benthic Ecologist NIWA, Wellington, New Zealand
02/2017–12/2024 Research Faculty, Florida State University, Coastal and Marine Laboratory, USA
01/2015–12/2016 Plymouth Marine Laboratory Postdoctoral Fellowship
Marine Ecology and Biodiversity, PML
01/2013–12/2014 Marie Curie Postdoctoral Intra-European Fellowship, PML, UK.
01/2010–12/2012 Post-doctoral Researcher, UGent, BE
Degrees
05/2005–12/2009 PhD Deep-Sea Ecology, UGent, BE
2003-2004 MSc Advanced Studies in Marine and Lacustrine Sciences, UGent, BE
1998-2003 BSc and MSc Biology, Zoology, UGent, Belgium
Contact Details
Biography
I’m a marine community ecologist with a wide interest in benthic biodiversity, ecosystem functions and processes, specialized in deep-sea ecology. A lot of my work is on finding out how organisms interact with their environment and each other, and how they can be used to 'indicate' a wide range of impacts and processes. Current research projects aim at understanding what drives benthic diversity and how it affects marine sediment functions and processes such as biogeochemical cycling and food-web flows. Work includes the assessment of anthropogenic impacts such as pollution and deep-sea mining, and climate-change effects on marine fauna and ecosystems.