I am teaching at the University of Amsterdam at the BSc and MSc level. Below you'll find more information about the courses that I am involved, an overview of recent BSc and MSc projects that I have supervised, and opportunities for students and Postdocs to get involved in ongoing projects.
From 2022 onward, my teaching at the University of Amsterdam is mainly centered on the following MSc course:
Global Ecology and Biodiversity: I am the coordinator of this course within the track Ecology & Evolution of the MSc in Biological Sciences (first time offered in December 2018). The course is focused on modelling global biodiversity and species distributions using large ecological and environmental datasets (especially using the R software and ArcGIS). It is a block course (4 weeks) and runs each year in December, with a maximum capacity of 30 students.
A selection of BSc and MSc projects that I have supervised in the last few years:
BSc projects
Remco J. M. Dudink (2020): Trait differences between animals that interact with megafaunal fruits and animals that don’t.
Tim P. Lenters (2019): Global geographic patterns in mammal-associated colours of animal-dispersed palm fruits.
Marrit van der Meer (2018): The effect of island isolation on the fruit size of palm species.
Frank Hopman (2017): Bird community body size, forest fragmentation and biodiversity.
Daphne Vink (2016): Functional diversity of frugivorous primates within and across biogeographic regions.
Roelof E. Zwaan (2015): Explaining agamid lizard diversity across Africa using migration route simulations.
MSc projects
Tim P. Lenters (2020): Integration and harmonization of trait data from plant individuals across heterogeneous sources.
J.P. Reinier de Vries (2020): Identifying fine-scale habitat preferences of threatened butterflies using country-wide Airborne Laser Scanning data.
Quinten Mudde (2020): Connecting reptile species and geodiversity: a global analysis.
Jorin Veen (2019): The importance of plant families in the diet of primates globally.
Pablo Varas Enríquez (2018): Macroecology of surviving offspring in contemporary human populations of the Global South.
Jasper Steenvoorden (2018): Assessing the ecological importance of unburned islands in the conservation and management of wildlife species: a case study on Greater Sage-Grouse populations in the sagebrush ecosystems of South-Eastern Oregon.
Aurisel J. Mata Velasquez (2017): Mapping ecosystem services: the current role of remote sensing.
Samantha-Leigh Jamison (2017): Unlocking bird-tree relationships: exploring biogeographical patterns across southern Africa.
Daphne Vink (2017): Environmental factors and palm fruit colour as drivers for trichromatic primate diversity across the world.
Julia Heinen (2016): Extinction-driven changes in insular frugivore communities.
Gabriel Muñoz (2016): Palm seed dispersal networks in Afrotropics and Neotropics: analysis of structure and biogeographical differences.
I welcome highly motivated BSc and MSc students as well as PhD students and postdocs to develop research projects under my supervision and guidance. If you are interested, then get in touch with me. Before doing that, please review my webpages and read some of my papers to understand what I am doing. With your enquiry, please send a CV, an overview of previous grades, and a statement about your research interest, your motivation and specific skills (e.g. related to programming, modelling, software, GIS knowledge, database handling). Please be aware that funding is very limited (e.g. for PhD and Postdocs). I am open to discuss the writing of joint grant proposals for hosting post-doctoral research fellows in my lab. When inquiring about opportunities please make sure that your project falls clearly within the scope of my research.