CURRENT POSITION
02/2023 – current
Heisenbergprofessor (W2) – Marine Symbiosis Group – Christian-Albrechts-University zu Kiel, Zoological Institute, Kiel, Germany
PAST POSITIONS
08/2014 – 01/2023
Project Leader – Evolution and function of host-symbiont interactions – Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen,
Germany, Department of Symbiosis
ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE
08/2012 – 07/2014
Marie Curie Post Doctoral Fellow – Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany, Department of Symbiosis – funded by IEF –
project CARISYM, Post Doc advisor Prof. Dr. Nicole Dubilier
04/2012 – 07/2012
Post Doc Researcher – University of Vienna, Austria, Dept. of Marine Biology, PI Prof. Dr. Gerhard Herndl
01/2008 – 12/2011
Research Assistant – University of Vienna, Austria, Dept. of Marine Biology - ASF Project PSMBIO P20394, PI Prof. Dr. Jörg Ott
EDUCATION
03/2006 – 03/2012
Ph.D. Zoology / Biology - University of Vienna, Austria, Dept. of Marine Biology; examination date: 03/26/2012
Employment for PhD work 01/2008 – 12/2011, Thesis title ‘Specificity and transmission in two shallow water thiotrophic symbioses’, Grade 1.0
10/1996 – 11/2005
Magister rer. nat. Zoology / Biology, - University of Vienna, Austria, Dept. of Marine Biology
Thesis title ‘Sulfur accumulation in a catenulid platyhelminth with microbial endosymbionts’
PUBLICATIONS
google scholar profile
49 publications, current h-index 26 (google scholar 03/2024)
SELECTED INVITED TALKS AND GUEST LECTURES
2024 ‘Who leads the genomic waltz, beneficial intracellular bacteria or their simple animal hosts?‘ Invited talk at Gönomix, University of Göttingen
2023 ‘Symbiosis as a driver for Placozoan Evolution.’ Invited talk at the public online seminar series ERATO, organized by Takema Fukatsu
2022 ‘Physiology and evolution of intracellular symbioses in marine invertebrates.’ Invited talk at the University Osnabrück Biological Colloquium
2022 ‘Symbiosis as a driver for metazoan evolution’ Invited talk at the Jaques Monod conference on Origin of metazoans, Roscoff, France
2021 ‘Resolving Countless or Very Long Repeats in Symbiont Genomes from Low Nanogram Metagenomic Samples.’ Invited talk, SMRT Leiden 2021
2021 ‘Intracellular symbioses in basal metazoans.’ Invited talk at the Biological Colloquium, University Kiel
2020 ‘Intracellular symbionts in marine invertebrates - new faces, new places, new roles.’ Invited talk, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry
2020 ‘Intracellular symbionts in marine invertebrates - new faces, new places, new roles.’ Invited talk, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology
2019 ‘Intracellular symbionts in marine invertebrates - new faces, new places, new roles.’ Invited talk at Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Naples, Italy
2017 ‘phyloFlash - Metagenomics, the full cycle rRNA approach and a new age of discovery.’ Invited talk YOUMARES-8 Kiel
2017 ‘Trichoplax H2 symbiosis’ – Invited talk at the University of Vienna, Dep. Ecogenomics & Systems Biology
2016 ‘Cand. Riegeria genome evolution‘ – Invited talk at the Universitat de les Illes Baleares, Palma Mallorca
ACADEMIC SELF ORGANIZATION
since 2024 Speaker of the CAU international Master School for Marine Sciences (iMSMS) a CAU-wide platform promoting ocean literacy
2019 – 2022 Young faculty representative on the steering committee of the International Max Planck Research School of Marine Microbiology
2019 Contribution to the successful application ‘MarMic 2.0’ for the next 6-year funding period
TEACHING
Lecturing
For a full list of my current courses, see the information pages of the University of Kiel here
since Summer term 2023 - full faculty member (9 term hours) of the Biology and zoology faculty at the University Kiel, Germany
I e.g. teach Introduction to Marine Biology (CAU biol-105) BSc obligatory course, 4 ECTS, every summer term. Lead lecturer and course organiser
2016 – 2022
International Max Planck Research School of Marine Microbiology (MarMic) faculty member
lead lecturer for annual two weeks lectures and practical on 'NGS based analysis of symbiont eco-physiology'
co-lecturer Scientific figure and illustration course using Adobe Illustrator
2006 – 2012
teaching assistant at the Dept. of Marine Biology with Prof. Dr. Jörg Ott
co-lecturer for the 2-term ‘Advanced Marine Biology course’ with field practical
student tutor for ‘Central California marine biological excursion’
Workshops held
2017 ‘De‐novo assembly and quality assessment of bacterial genomes.’ Invited lecture in ‘Analysis of bacterial genome sequences for molecular epidemiology – a hands-on practical workshop’ DSMZ Braunschweig
2014 ‘The island of Elba – a thiotrophic symbiosis hotspot’ and ‘Big data from little holobionts’ – invited lectures at the Symbiomics ITN workshop Elba
Awards
2019 Teaching excellence award for two weeks practical ‘NGS based analysis of symbiont eco-physiology’
STUDENT SUPERVISION AND MENTORING
Supervised MSc and PhD students independently supervised under the Promotionsrecht of Prof. Dr. Dubilier
Current PhD students at the CAU
Igor Duarte – PhD candidate, prospective defense date Q3/2026
Henry Berndt – PhD candidate, prospective defense date Q1/2027
Current PhD students co-supervised with Prof. Dr. Dubilier, MPI Bremen
Jero Cifuentes – MarMic PhD candidate, prospective defense date Q4/2024
Mentoring
Judith Zimmermann (Symbiosis Dept. MPI-MM), Emmo Hamann (Microbial Fitness Group, MPI-MM), Emil Ruff , Petra Pjevac and Dimitri Meier (Molecular Ecology Dept. MPI-MM), Viola Krukenberg (HGF MPG Joint Research Group for Deep-Sea Ecology and Technology), Cameron Callbeck (Biogeochemistry Dept. MPI-MM)
SOFTWARE
phyloFlash - A pipeline to rapidly reconstruct the SSU rRNAs and explore phylogenetic composition of an illumina (meta)genomic dataset.
https://github.com/HRGV/phyloFlash
FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS AND FUNDING
2012
Marie-Curie Intra-European Fellowship PIEF-GA-2011-301027 CARISYM
2010
Best PhD student presentation - "Alphaproteobacteria as coevolved thiotrophic symbionts in marine catenulid flatworms" Science Day, Vienna Ecology Centre, University of Vienna, Austria
2007
co-authored ASF Project PSMBIO P20394, PI Prof. Dr. Jörg Ott
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Reviewer activities for funding agencies (NSF, DFG, DAAD) and scientific journals (Nature Communications, ISMEJ, mSystems, Environmental Microbiology, Frontiers in Microbiology, PeerJ, Cell and Tissue Research)
Editor for Symbiosis Journal – specialty marine symbioses
SOFT SKILLS
2019 Leadership in science – two-day workshop for young group leaders at the MPI-MM held by Schiller&Mertens
OUTREACH TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC
2019 Magazine ECO – Contribution to ‘Seagrasses and Their Sediments - A Sweet Story’
2019 Blog post – ‘Behind the paper’ – Trichoplax Symbiosis
2013 Radio broadcast Radio Bremen Zebra 4 – Science for kids age 8 – 14 ‘Marine Symbioses’
2011 – current Wikipedia page curations
02/2023 – current
Heisenbergprofessor (W2) – Marine Symbiosis Group – Christian-Albrechts-University zu Kiel, Zoological Institute, Kiel, Germany
PAST POSITIONS
08/2014 – 01/2023
Project Leader – Evolution and function of host-symbiont interactions – Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen,
Germany, Department of Symbiosis
ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE
08/2012 – 07/2014
Marie Curie Post Doctoral Fellow – Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Bremen, Germany, Department of Symbiosis – funded by IEF –
project CARISYM, Post Doc advisor Prof. Dr. Nicole Dubilier
04/2012 – 07/2012
Post Doc Researcher – University of Vienna, Austria, Dept. of Marine Biology, PI Prof. Dr. Gerhard Herndl
01/2008 – 12/2011
Research Assistant – University of Vienna, Austria, Dept. of Marine Biology - ASF Project PSMBIO P20394, PI Prof. Dr. Jörg Ott
EDUCATION
03/2006 – 03/2012
Ph.D. Zoology / Biology - University of Vienna, Austria, Dept. of Marine Biology; examination date: 03/26/2012
Employment for PhD work 01/2008 – 12/2011, Thesis title ‘Specificity and transmission in two shallow water thiotrophic symbioses’, Grade 1.0
10/1996 – 11/2005
Magister rer. nat. Zoology / Biology, - University of Vienna, Austria, Dept. of Marine Biology
Thesis title ‘Sulfur accumulation in a catenulid platyhelminth with microbial endosymbionts’
PUBLICATIONS
google scholar profile
49 publications, current h-index 26 (google scholar 03/2024)
SELECTED INVITED TALKS AND GUEST LECTURES
2024 ‘Who leads the genomic waltz, beneficial intracellular bacteria or their simple animal hosts?‘ Invited talk at Gönomix, University of Göttingen
2023 ‘Symbiosis as a driver for Placozoan Evolution.’ Invited talk at the public online seminar series ERATO, organized by Takema Fukatsu
2022 ‘Physiology and evolution of intracellular symbioses in marine invertebrates.’ Invited talk at the University Osnabrück Biological Colloquium
2022 ‘Symbiosis as a driver for metazoan evolution’ Invited talk at the Jaques Monod conference on Origin of metazoans, Roscoff, France
2021 ‘Resolving Countless or Very Long Repeats in Symbiont Genomes from Low Nanogram Metagenomic Samples.’ Invited talk, SMRT Leiden 2021
2021 ‘Intracellular symbioses in basal metazoans.’ Invited talk at the Biological Colloquium, University Kiel
2020 ‘Intracellular symbionts in marine invertebrates - new faces, new places, new roles.’ Invited talk, Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry
2020 ‘Intracellular symbionts in marine invertebrates - new faces, new places, new roles.’ Invited talk, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology
2019 ‘Intracellular symbionts in marine invertebrates - new faces, new places, new roles.’ Invited talk at Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Naples, Italy
2017 ‘phyloFlash - Metagenomics, the full cycle rRNA approach and a new age of discovery.’ Invited talk YOUMARES-8 Kiel
2017 ‘Trichoplax H2 symbiosis’ – Invited talk at the University of Vienna, Dep. Ecogenomics & Systems Biology
2016 ‘Cand. Riegeria genome evolution‘ – Invited talk at the Universitat de les Illes Baleares, Palma Mallorca
ACADEMIC SELF ORGANIZATION
since 2024 Speaker of the CAU international Master School for Marine Sciences (iMSMS) a CAU-wide platform promoting ocean literacy
2019 – 2022 Young faculty representative on the steering committee of the International Max Planck Research School of Marine Microbiology
2019 Contribution to the successful application ‘MarMic 2.0’ for the next 6-year funding period
TEACHING
Lecturing
For a full list of my current courses, see the information pages of the University of Kiel here
since Summer term 2023 - full faculty member (9 term hours) of the Biology and zoology faculty at the University Kiel, Germany
I e.g. teach Introduction to Marine Biology (CAU biol-105) BSc obligatory course, 4 ECTS, every summer term. Lead lecturer and course organiser
2016 – 2022
International Max Planck Research School of Marine Microbiology (MarMic) faculty member
lead lecturer for annual two weeks lectures and practical on 'NGS based analysis of symbiont eco-physiology'
co-lecturer Scientific figure and illustration course using Adobe Illustrator
2006 – 2012
teaching assistant at the Dept. of Marine Biology with Prof. Dr. Jörg Ott
co-lecturer for the 2-term ‘Advanced Marine Biology course’ with field practical
student tutor for ‘Central California marine biological excursion’
Workshops held
2017 ‘De‐novo assembly and quality assessment of bacterial genomes.’ Invited lecture in ‘Analysis of bacterial genome sequences for molecular epidemiology – a hands-on practical workshop’ DSMZ Braunschweig
2014 ‘The island of Elba – a thiotrophic symbiosis hotspot’ and ‘Big data from little holobionts’ – invited lectures at the Symbiomics ITN workshop Elba
Awards
2019 Teaching excellence award for two weeks practical ‘NGS based analysis of symbiont eco-physiology’
STUDENT SUPERVISION AND MENTORING
Supervised MSc and PhD students independently supervised under the Promotionsrecht of Prof. Dr. Dubilier
- Tina Enders MarMic PhD, defended PhD 07/2022, Thesis title: ‘Distribution and physiology of Alphaproteobacterialiving in symbiosis with marine gutless oligochaetes'
- Anna Mankovski MarMic PhD, defended PhD 11/2021, Thesis title: ‘From genomes to communities-Evolution of symbionts associated with globallydistributed marine invertebrates'
- Malin Tietjen MarMic PhD, defended PhD 01/2021, Thesis title: ‘Physiology and ecology of deep-sea Bathymodiolus symbioses'
- Artur B. Zaduryan Marmic MSc, defended MSc 03/2020, Thesis title ‘Investigating the phylogeny and occurrence of gutless oligochaetes associated Chlamydiae’
- Marius Poulain Université Paris Sud, defended MSc 06/2019, Thesis title ‘Functional and comparative genomic analyses of the Delta4 proteobacterial symbionts of gutless oligochaetes’ (Co –supervised with Anna Mankowski).
- Oliver Jäckle MarMic MSc and PhD, defended PhD 12/2018, Thesis title: ‘Evolution and physiology of the Paracatenula symbiosis’
- Brandon K. B. Seah MarMic MSc and PhD, defended PhD 10/2017, Thesis title: ‘The bacterial ectosymbionts of the ciliate Kentrophoros’
Current PhD students at the CAU
Igor Duarte – PhD candidate, prospective defense date Q3/2026
Henry Berndt – PhD candidate, prospective defense date Q1/2027
Current PhD students co-supervised with Prof. Dr. Dubilier, MPI Bremen
Jero Cifuentes – MarMic PhD candidate, prospective defense date Q4/2024
Mentoring
Judith Zimmermann (Symbiosis Dept. MPI-MM), Emmo Hamann (Microbial Fitness Group, MPI-MM), Emil Ruff , Petra Pjevac and Dimitri Meier (Molecular Ecology Dept. MPI-MM), Viola Krukenberg (HGF MPG Joint Research Group for Deep-Sea Ecology and Technology), Cameron Callbeck (Biogeochemistry Dept. MPI-MM)
SOFTWARE
phyloFlash - A pipeline to rapidly reconstruct the SSU rRNAs and explore phylogenetic composition of an illumina (meta)genomic dataset.
https://github.com/HRGV/phyloFlash
FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS AND FUNDING
2012
Marie-Curie Intra-European Fellowship PIEF-GA-2011-301027 CARISYM
2010
Best PhD student presentation - "Alphaproteobacteria as coevolved thiotrophic symbionts in marine catenulid flatworms" Science Day, Vienna Ecology Centre, University of Vienna, Austria
2007
co-authored ASF Project PSMBIO P20394, PI Prof. Dr. Jörg Ott
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Reviewer activities for funding agencies (NSF, DFG, DAAD) and scientific journals (Nature Communications, ISMEJ, mSystems, Environmental Microbiology, Frontiers in Microbiology, PeerJ, Cell and Tissue Research)
Editor for Symbiosis Journal – specialty marine symbioses
SOFT SKILLS
2019 Leadership in science – two-day workshop for young group leaders at the MPI-MM held by Schiller&Mertens
OUTREACH TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC
2019 Magazine ECO – Contribution to ‘Seagrasses and Their Sediments - A Sweet Story’
2019 Blog post – ‘Behind the paper’ – Trichoplax Symbiosis
2013 Radio broadcast Radio Bremen Zebra 4 – Science for kids age 8 – 14 ‘Marine Symbioses’
2011 – current Wikipedia page curations