I am an Associate Professor at the Biogeography Department of Trier University, Germany, and the PI of serveral research projects related to

- species genesis and delimitation (taxonomy) 

- character evolution, in particular traits related to aposematism

- geographic range and ecological niche exploitation and change

- biological response to past climate change and to the Anthropocene 

- the impact of invasive species and pathogens

Focal study regions are rainforests of South America, but also our 'back garden' in central Europe. Our key organisms are amphibians. Among our main study groups are poison frogs (Dendrobatidae), harlequin toads (Atelopus) and European land salamanders (Salamandra). But these are not exclusive, as we also investigate reptiles, invertebrates or others. We study species and their environments at different spatial, temporal and taxonomic scales.

In an interdisciplinary frame, our lab may best be seen at the interface of systematics, ecology, biogeography, evolution and conservation. Methodically, we are broad from next general sequencing to next genration morphology, as well as from GIS applications into modelling and process lab, experimental and field data. We very much like collaborative work.

I co-founded HABITATS, an international research-based NGO network for nature conservation, that we will expand over the coming years. I am member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission and the Atelopus Survival Initiative (ASI). I am co-coordinating it as a member of the IUCN Atelopus Task Force.

Currently, being a co-editor of Salamandra, I was an editor of PLoS ONE and Biotropica. Past activities also include membership of the International Committee of the World Congress of Herpetology and being a vice-president of the German Herpetological Society DGHT. 

My ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is orcid.org/0000-0002-7187-1968. I am also on Research Gate.