Welcome to Andrew Helmstetter

Yesterday 1st February 2018, we welcomed Andrew to our lab! Welcome!
Andrew undertook his PhD in evolutionary biology at Imperial College London, on the evolution of annual killifish (Austrolebias) and other Cyprinodontiformes. He then undertook several Postdoctoral Research Fellows in plant genomics at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, working on hazelnut production in Turkey, demographic history of the sea campion, Silene uniflora and analyzing genomic data fora  range of projects on Madagascan plants (including some palms!).
He will be here in Montpellier for 2 years and will work on the comparative phylogeography of several co distributed rain forest plant species (Annonaceae and palms) across Central Africa, part of the AFRODYN project.
Next stop: Cameroon for some field work and hands on discussions about rain forest evolution!

Check out one of his intresting papers from his PhD:
Helmstetter, A.J., Papadopulos, A.S., Igea, J., Van Dooren, T.J., Leroi, A.M., & Savolainen, V. (2016) Viviparity stimulates diversification in an order of fish. Nature communications, 7, 11271.