Program

Chema Martin-Duran is a Reader in Organismal Biology at Queen Mary University of London (UK). His work on the development of non-model marine invertebrates has provided new perspectives on key aspects of animal macroevolutionary transitions.

Chema obtained his PhD at the University of Barcelona (2011) with a thesis on the embryonic development of planarian flatworms. After a postdoctoral research at the Sars Centre for Marine Molecular Biology (2011-2018), he moved to Queen Mary University of London to establish a lab that combines his interests in developmental biology, animal evolution, and marine biodiversity.

As a Principal Investigator, Chema has gained prestigious funding from the European Research Council (ERC Starting Grant EVOCELFATE), Wellcome Trust, Royal Society, The Leverhulme Trust, Human Frontiers and UK research councils. His work focuses on studying marine segmented worms with spiral cleavage and combining multi-omic approaches with more traditional cell and developmental studies to identify the genetic and developmental mechanisms generating phenotypic change during animal embryogenesis.

Fabrizia Ronco is a Junior Group Leader and Lecturer at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Her research explores the evolutionary dynamics of adaptive radiations by studying some of the most iconic examples of vertebrate diversification, such as the cichlid fishes of Lake Tanganyika and the notothenioid fishes that radiated in the sub-zero waters around Antarctica. 

Fabrizia completed her Master’s, PhD, and first postdoctoral position at the University of Basel, where she began working on African cichlid fishes. She then continued her postdoctoral research at the Natural History Museum in Oslo, Norway, investigating the evolutionary history of notothenioids. Now back at the University of Basel, she focuses on several adaptive radiations and combines advanced imaging techniques, multivariate eco-morphological quantifications, genomics, and phylogenetic comparative methods to study how complex traits evolve across lineages. Overall, her research centers on the evolutionary dynamics of traits and the genetic architecture underlying trait evolution in rapidly diversifying groups. Her work contributes to a deeper understanding of how evolutionary processes shape phenotypic diversity, as well as the genomic and ecological mechanisms driving morphological and ecological diversification.

Jan Marcin Węsławski is the Director of the Institute of Oceanology, Polish Academy of Sciences (IO PAN) in Sopot, Poland. He holds an M.Sc. (1979) and Ph.D. (1984) from the University of Gdańsk, , followed by a habilitation in 1993, and was appointed full professor in 2000.  His extensive research focuses on the ecology of Arctic coastal waters, with a particular emphasis on food webs and the impact of climate change on biodiversity. Notably, Professor Węsławski has has also extensive expertise in Malacostraca, encompassing both benthic and pelagic crustaceans, including their ecological roles within marine ecosystems. His involvement in numerous significant research projects, such as GAME (Growing of Arctic marine ecosystem) and ADAMANT (Arctic benthic ecosystems under change: the impact of deglaciation and boreal species transportation by macroplastic), highlights his commitment to understanding the complexities of Arctic environments. Furthermore, since the 1990s, he has actively participated in European teams dedicated to marine biodiversity assessment and contributed to the decennial Census of Marine Life program.  His work has demonstrated the effects of warming Arctic fjords on biodiversity and energy flow. With a career marked by numerous polar and sea expeditions numerous polar and sea expeditions across the Arctic, including to Canada, Greenland, Spitsbergen, and Franz Josef Land, and over a hundred research papers, Professor Węsławski is a leading authority on Arctic marine ecology and the role of crustaceans within these changing ecosystems. 

Sujeevan Ratnasingham is a Canadian bioinformatician renowned for his pioneering work in biodiversity genomics and informatics. He currently serves as the Chief Technology Officer at Map of Life, where he leads the development of global biodiversity data infrastructures to support conservation and environmental decision-making.​

Ratnasingham is the architect behind several critical platforms in biodiversity data management, including the Barcode of Life Data System (BOLD), the Multiplex Barcode Research and Visualization Environment (mBRAVE), and the Barcode Index Number (BIN) framework. These tools have been instrumental in advancing DNA-based methods for species identification and have played a key role in the global adoption of genomic tools for biosurveillance and biodiversity policy.​

In addition to his role at Map of Life, Ratnasingham is an Adjunct Faculty member in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Guelph.

His contributions to the field are widely recognized, with over 25,000 citations to his work, reflecting his significant impact on bioinformatics, biodiversity informatics, and genomics.

Thierry Rigaud is a Research Director (DR CNRS HDR) at the Laboratoire Biogéosciences CNRS, UMR 6282, Université de Bourgogne in Dijon, France. His work significantly contributes to the field of evolutionary ecology, particularly focusing on the intricate dynamics of host-parasite interactions.  

Professor Rigaud's academic journey includes graduate studies at the Université de Poitiers (1987), a DEA (MSc) in Population Biology & Eco-Ethology from the Université de Tours (1988), and a PhD in Population Biology from the same institution (1991). He further earned his Habilitation à Diriger les Recherches (HDR) from the Université de Poitiers in 1999, signifying his capacity to supervise doctoral research.  

His research explores diverse parasite strategies and their impact on host populations. Key areas of interest include the manipulation of host sex ratio by parasites like Wolbachia and microsporidia in crustaceans, the behavioral manipulation of hosts by acanthocephalan parasites, the conflicts arising from multi-parasite infections as well as, generally, the problems of co-evolution and co-diversification of parasites and their hosts. He also investigates the role of biological invasions in shaping host-parasite relationships and has conducted studies on sea urchins and the evolutionary ecology of immunity in insects.  

Holding a prominent position at CNRS and the Université de Bourgogne, Thierry Rigaud is a leading voice in evolutionary ecology, offering valuable insights into the complex world of host-parasite dynamics.