Sex ratio theory for facultative parthenogens: from fortuitously optimal stick insects to the origin of haplodiploidy in Hymenoptera

First, I will present one of my PhD papers which focuses on sex ratios when females can reproduce both sexually and asexually. This paper features two models: an optimality model and an evolutionary invasion analysis. More generally, it shows my style of approaching evolutionary theory. After this, I will briefly discuss the work I plan to do in the next 6 months during my JSPS fellowship where I will focus on the evolution of more conventional X-chromosomes.

Short Bio: I studied biology at the Free University in Berlin. My biology studies were mostly empirical but I attended several Bachelor courses for mathematicians (calculus and stochastics) and did my Master thesis in Zurich with Hanna Kokko, a theoretical evolutionary ecologist who studies a broad range of topics. In 2020, I then continued working in Hanna Kokko’s group for my PhD and moved with her from Zurich to Mainz in 2023. During my time with Hanna Kokko, worked on various topics centered around intraspecific diversity, including projects on sexual dimorphism, sex ratio theory, intralocus sexual conflict, and a female-limited color polymorphism in a butterfly. Since then, I started my first PostDoc in 2024 with Laura Ross in Edinburgh (UK) where I modelled how the unusual genetic systems of Scarid flies could have evolved, and have now started a 6 month JSPS fellowship with Ryosuke Iritani.