IBA TEAM

FREDRIK RONQUIST

Principal Investigator

Fredrik is the lead PI in the IBA project. He is a professor at the Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics, Swedish Museum of Natural History and an affiliate professor at the Department of Zoology, Stockholm University. His research focuses on statistical phylogenetics, and on insect systematics, evolution and diversity. For more information about his research, see ronquistlab.github.io

TOMAS ROSLIN

Principal Investigator

Tomas is a PI in the IBA project. Together with Ayco Tack, he is responsible for interpreting patterns at the level of insect communities and associated ecosystem services. Tomas is professor of insect ecology at the Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU, Uppsala). He is particularly interested in the processes structuring communities around the world – including both their species contents and the interactions between these species.

ANDERS ANDERSSON

Principal Investigator

Anders is a PI in the project. He is responsible for the bioinformatics in the IBA project. Anders is an associate professor in metagenomics at KTH / SciLifeLab mostly working with microbiomes and methods development in metagenomics and metabarcoding. For more information, see http://envgen.github.io

AYCO TACK

Principal Investigator

Ayco is one of the PIs in the IBA project, and works as an associate professor at the Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences at Stockholm University. He is broadly interested how ecological and evolutionary interactions between plants, insects and microbes play out in a spatial setting. For more information about his research, see www.plantmicrobeinsect.com

ANDREIA MIRALDO

Research Manager

Andreia Miraldo is the IBA research manager. She is responsible for the implementation of the project, leading the operational, logistics and administrative tasks, managing fieldwork and labwork, keeping an eye on the budget and, together with the PI´s of the project, overseeing the research. Andreia has a PhD in evolutionary biology and several years experience as a postdoc at the University of Helsinki and the Natural History Museum of Denmark.

ELZBIETA IWASZKIEWICZ

Postdoctoral researcher

Ela is a postdoc in the IBA. She is developing and implementing molecular and bioinformatic protocols to describe the insect fauna of Sweden and Madagascar. Her work involves metabarcoding as well as individual insect barcoding and development of insect abundance quantification methods. Ela has a PhD in evolutionary biology (Max Planck Institute in Plön, Germany) and MSc in Oceanography (Paris VI, France).

COLLABORATORS

PIOTR LUKASIK

Piotr is an Assistant Professor at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland, interested in the diversity, evolution, and functions of insect-associated microorganisms, as well as high-throughput methods of biodiversity study (more information on the lab website). As a part of the IBA, Piotr has focused on developing and implementing molecular and bioinformatic methods for insect community surveys and on the characterization of individual insects and their microbiomes.

BRIAN L. FISHER

IBA Madagascar coordinator

Brian L. Fisher is the founder of the Madagascar Biodiversity Center and coordinates the IBA program in Madagascar. Fisher has spent three decades documenting Madagascar's beautiful insect biodiversity and is curator of Entomology at the California Academy of sciences (Fisherlab.org).

DAVE KARLSSON

Job Title

Dave Karlsson is the managing director of Station Linné and a taxonomist focused on Opiinae wasps (Hymenoptera: Braconidae). He is a naturalist with a passion for education and outreach. Dave was awarded the prestigous Sture Centerwalls award 2021 and the Årets Ölänning award in 2017 for his leadership and dedication to insect research and outreach about the diversity of insects.