People

We are located at the Biocentre 3 on Viikki Campus, Helsinki, Finland.

Group members include researchers with different backgrounds, ranging from ecology, evolutionary biology, genomics, and landscape genetics to spatial modeling

Marjo Saastamoinen

Professor in Evolutionary Ecology

Office: 5715 (Biocenter 3)
E-mail: marjo.saastamoinen@helsinki.fi
Phone: + 358 50 448 4471

  • Life history ecology & evolution
  • Dispersal
  • Genotype-phenotype association
  • Phenotypic plasticity
  • Ecological immunology
Audrey Bras

Post-doctoral researcher

Office: 5413 (Biocenter 3)

Email: audrey.bras@helsinki.fi

Post-doctoral project : Spatio-temporal genetic variation of butterflies in relation to land use and recent population trends, parts of a newly established Centre for Ecological Genetics (EcoGenetics)

  • Population genetics
  • Landscape genomics
  • Ecology and Evolution
  • Human-driven environmental changes
Natalie van Dis

Post-doctoral researcher

Office: 5716 (Biocenter 3)

E-mail: natalie.vandis@helsinki.fi

Natalie is interested in the evolutionary potential of wild populations under global change. She combines long-term ecological data of Lepidoptera populations with genomics approaches to find factors that influence the rate of adaptation.

Project: Assessing the adaptive potential of wild butterfly populations using temporal genomics

  • Population genomics
  • Eco-evolutionary dynamics
  • Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia)
Arthur Rodrigues

Post-doctoral researcher

Office: 5413 (Biocenter 3)

E-mail: arthur.rodrigues@helsinki.fi

  • Community ecology 
  • Macroecology and macroevolution 
  • Biogeography
Patrick Heidbreder

Doctoral researcher

Office: 5202 (Biocenter 3)

E-mail: patrick.heidbreder@helsinki.fi

PhD project "Survival Under Warming Climate and Adaptive Potential of Hybridization". Funded by the LUOVA doctoral programme (Jan. 2023 - Dec. 2024). Supervised by Jonna Kulmuni and Marjo Saastamoinen.

  • Hybridization and speciation
  • Evolutionary genomics
  • Adaptive potential
  • Thermal performance
Ulla Riihimäki

Doctoral researcher

Office: 5607 (Biocenter 3)

E-mail: ulla.riihimaki@helsinki.fi

PhD project “Linking population trends to ecological performance in butterflies”. Funded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation as a part of project “The missing link: unraveling the role of genetic variation of beneficial arthropods in agro-ecosystems" (to Marjo Saastamoinen as a co-PI).

  • Ecological performance
  • Genetic diversity
  • Population ecology
  • Land use & biodiversity
Lola Fernández Multigner

Doctoral researcher

Office: 5716 (Biocenter 3)
E-mail: lola.fernandezmultigner@helsinki.fi

PhD project "Genetic diversity in Range-Shifting Butterflies". Funded by the LUOVA doctoral programme (Jan. 2024 - Dec. 2027). Supervised by Marjo Saastamoinen and Audrey Bras.

  • Landscape genetics
  • Spatial ecology
  • Genetic diversity
  • Environmental change & conservation
Juho Kökkö

Technical assistant

Office: 5607 (Biocenter 3)
E-mail: juho.kokko@helsinki.fi

Project PLASTI-CITY: Urban evolution of seasonal plasticity across space and time.

Suvi Ikonen

Coordinator

Lammi Biological Station

E-mail: suvi.ikonen@helsinki.fi

Alumni

Nadja Verspagen (Doctoral researcher 2020-2024)

Mariana Pires Braga (Visiting post-doctoral researcher 2021-2023)

Mirkka Jones (University researcher 2023)

Maria Hällfors (Post-doctoral researcher 2018-2022)

Michelle DiLeo (Post-doctoral researcher 2016-2022)

Andrea Santangeli (Post-doctoral researcher 2021-2022)

Abhilash Nair (Post-doctoral researcher & University researcher 2013-2021)

Torsti Schulz (PhD student 2017-2021)

Aapo Kahilainen (Post-doctoral researcher 2015-2021)

Sridhar Halali (Post-doctoral researcher 2021)

Susu Rytteri (PhD student 2016-2021)

Anniina Mattila (Post-doctoral researcher 2015-2020)

Erik van Bergen (Post-doctoral researcher 2019-2020)

Daniel Blande (Post-doctoral researcher 2018-2020)

Ana Salgado (Phd student 2015-2019)

Elena Rosa (Phd student 2014 - 2018, post-doctoral researcher 2019)

Vicencio Oostra (Post-doctoral researcher 2018-2019)

Dimitri Stucki (Post-doctoral researcher 2018-2019)

Anne Duplouy (Post-doctoral researcher 2017-2018)

Virpi Ahola (Post-doctoral researcher 2016-2018)

Lu­isa Woest­mann (Phd student 2014-2017)

Guillaume Minard (Post-doctoral researcher 2015-2017)