People

Petra Berger

Verena Fischer

After finishing her vocational training in office management she started to work at the University of Bremen in 2019. She was responsible for the administration of Cellbiology and Microbial Ecophysiology until 2023. Verena took a sabbatical in Japan in the same year. After returning, she oversees various administrative aspects of the Insect Ecology in Changing Environments group. Outside of work Verena likes to travel and get to know different cultures. She also enjoys everything science fiction and fantasy, from movies and books to tabletop games.

Ana Sofía Torres Lara

I am fascinated about insect biodiversity and understanding how species adapt to environmental and anthropogenic changes, with the goal of informing conservation efforts. My research focuses on butterflies, which serve as excellent model organisms for studying evolution across time and varied environments.
I completed my MSc in Conservation Biology at Lund University, where I investigated the impact of habitat fragmentation on the genetic diversity of threatened butterfly species by comparing historical and modern specimens. Currently, as a PhD student at the University of Bremen, my research explores how natural selection shapes in urban environments and whether its effects vary across different latitudes in Europe.

Nadja Verspagen

Nadja completed her BSc (Maastricht University) and MSc (Radboud University) in the Netherlands and then moved to Finland to do her PhD at the University of Helsinki. Here, she studied the interplay between plasticity and evolution in response to temperature in Glanville fritillary butterflies originating from latitudinal and altitudinal gradients. She now works as a postdoc in the Insect Ecology in Changing Environments group. Her current project aims to investigate the effects of mismatches between cue and environment on the evolution of seasonal plasticity using computer models, and she is excited to plan more research into this topic. When not in the lab or behind a computer, she can be found at the horse stables, riding her bike or hiking through the Finnish forests, or playing boardgames with friends. Nadja is based in Helsinki.

Juho Kökkö

Juho completed his master’s thesis on the seasonal and land-use dependent ecology of the butterfly Pieris napi. Having received his MSc degree in ecology and evolutionary biology from the University of Helsinki, he continues working with the same butterfly species as a doctoral researcher in the Insect Ecology in Changing Environment group. He is excited to work on his project, which studies the urban evolution of P. napi, and the utility of citizen science in enhancing science education in a school setting. Outside of his work and studies, Juho enjoys tennis and games of all kinds, whether they be on a computer or a tabletop.