Jan Hrcek
Head of the Laboratory of Experimental Ecology
Research Associate, University of Oxford
I am interested in ecology and evolution of interactions between insects and their parasites and in processes which govern dynamics of complex natural networks of these interactions. I'm building a bridge between field community ecology and typical laboratory experiments with single interactions to allow deep mechanistic understanding of complex food webs.
CV
janhrcek@gmail.com
Vrinda Ravi Kumar
Postdoc
My research aims to address broad evolutionary and ecological questions about how individuals, populations and communities respond to environmental change. I have worked on adaptive and maladaptive phenotypic responses that occur across a range of time-scales (e.g. within-generation behavioural change and longer-term phenotypic evolution). As a postdoc in Jan's lab, I am working on the eco-evolutionary dynamics and behavioural ecology of host-parasitoid communities.
vrindaravikumar42@gmail.com
Vrinda's Google Scholar
Personal website
Vid Bakovic
Postdoc
I am interested in how new species form and I study the speciation process using genetic/genomic data. My research focused on studying populations of the same species that have adapted to heterogenous habitats. In my new postdoc position with Jan Hrcek, I intend to study populations of different species and their interactions, with the hope of getting a glimpse into later stages of the speciation continuum.
vidbakovic@gmail.com
Vid's Google Scholar
Grégoire Proudhom
PhD student
My PhD main focus is on the two-way interaction between the community structure and the dynamics of the species composing it. To this extend I will use long-term and short-term experiments in the lab on the Australian Drosophila and their parasitoids community, combined with modelling to get hints on how will the community shape itself when exposed to heat waves and invasive species.
g.proudhom@gmail.com
Vincent Montbel
PhD student
I am mainly interested in genetic diversity in communities and its role in eco-evolutionary dynamics. My research focuses on the evolutionary dynamics resulting from interactions between Australian rain forest Drosophila and their parasitoids. I will explore the mechanism of natural selection and evolution at the community level and the impact of genetic diversity in interspecies interaction. I will also explore the community genetics and, in particular, fly resistance to parasitoids.
vincent.montbel@gmail.com
Paresh Nath Das
PhD student
I have a background in evolutionary biology and I was always fascinated how different environmental factors affect ecology and evolution of biological systems. I am interested in understanding the role of warming and extreme weather events like heat waves in the dynamics of host - parasitoid community. I will use laboratory experiments on Australian rainforest Drosophila and their parasitoids, complemented by ecological modelling to explore community response and eco-evolutionary dynamics when exposed to warming and heat waves.
pareshnathd@gmail.com
Anna Mácová
Research Assistant
As a molecular ecologist, I mostly focus on work in molecular lab, but also help with maintaining fly and wasp stock and help others with their experiments. As a Czech member of the team, I'm here also to help our foreign students with paperwork or with ordering material.
anna.macova@entu.cas.cz
Somayeh Rasouli-Dogaheh (Somi)
Research Assistant
I am interested in understanding how different evolutionary drivers shape patterns of speciation based on population genetic/genomic analyses. I am in Jan's lab to assist my colleagues to progress their experimental procedures. We are enthusiastic to gain insight into Host-parasite interactions and study innate immunity mechanisms using Drosophila-parasitoid community as a model system.
Somayeh.rasouli.dogaheh@entu.cas.cz
Google Scholar
Michaela Borovanska
Molecular Lab Manager
I am interested in insect physiology and molecular ecology. I did a PhD in insect thermal physiology and then took up lab manager role in the molecular laboratory of the Department of Ecology. There I help students and colleagues with a wide range of molecular methods including DNA barcoding and metabarcoding, detection methods and population studies.
michaela.borovanska@seznam.cz
Anna Jandová
Research Assistant
My task in Jan's lab is to assist colleagues with the practical aspects of their daily research. More specifically, I would like to introduce and maintain highly efficient system of Drosophila-parasitoid breeding and provide reliable molecular data to support the research in the lab. Apart from that, as a parasitologist I'm naturally interested in Drosophila parasites. Currently on maternity leave.
ani.jandova@gmail.com
Alumni
Miguel González Ximénez de Embún, former postdoc, now postdoc at Granada University, Spain
Jeni Sage Sidwell, former MSc student, now PhD student at University of Leeds, UK
Mélanie Thierry, former PhD student, now postdoc at CNRS, France
Nick Pardikes, former postdoc, now Lecturer ar Utah State University, USA
Joel James Brown, former PhD student, now postdoc at Cornell University, USA
Martin Libra, former PhD student, now postdoc at Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences
Chia-Hua Lue, former postdoc, now postdoc at University of Pennsylvania, USA
Martin Volf, former undergraduate, now PI at Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences
Frantisek Sladecek, former undergraduate, now postdoc at Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences
Collaborators
Owen Lewis, University of Oxford: field experiments with the Drosophila-parasitoid system
Charles Godfray, University of Oxford: Microbial symbiosis
Jon Bridle, University College London, UK, and Eleanor O'Brien, Edith Cowan University, Australia: population ecology of Drosophila birchii
Megan Higgie, James Cook University: fieldwork on Drosophila-parasitoid system
Scott Miller, Smithsonian Institution: Moth taxonomy, DNA barcoding
Donald Quicke, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand: Parasitoid taxonomy
Graham Stone, University of Edinburgh: Molecular ecology, DNA metabarcoding
Vojtech Novotny, Biology Centre CAS: Food web ecology, Papua New Guinea fieldwork
Vladimir Kostal, Biology Centre CAS: Insect physiology
David Boukal, Biology Centre CAS: ecological modelling
Phillip Staniczenko, City University of New York, USA: network structure modelling
Matt Buffington, USDA: parasitic wasp taxonomy