The cycle of resources on earth rests on the chemical activity of single-celled microorganisms, called microbes. By concentrating the reactants and enzymes inside their cell walls, microbes carry are able to carry out reactions that are otherwise unheard of but the concentration comes at a cost: active energy is required to maintain a functional cytoplasm and the chemical gradient across the membrane. I am particularly interested in how microbes in marine sediment deal with these challenges, particularly when microbes have only little energy available to them as in the anaerobic oxidization of methane. To this end I am looking into the physiological response to energy starvation, the minimum energy rates to maintain chemical gradients and the evolved strategies of microbes to maintain basic cell organization in bad times.
I am currently a post-doctoral fellow with Victoria Orphan at the California Institute of Technology. Previously, I completed a PhD with Michael Manhart at ETH Zurich and I hold a master in mathematics from the University of Bonn. You can find my CV on this website and my publications on Google Scholar.
News and Updates
2025-06-19: My first time at the big yearly ASM meeting! I am giving a talk on my post-doc work on the abundance of the methane-oxidizing ANME archaea using order-of-magnitude methods.
2025-03-23: I am attending the yearly VAAM meeting in Bochum, for the first time presenting my post-doc work on the global abundance of specialized microbial groups. Danke Bochum!
2025-03-16: One more round of quantitative biology at APS! I am co-chairing two sessions on Evolutionary Dynamics and presenting my work on metabolic modeling of microbial communities at the APS March Meeting in Anaheim.
2024-10-03: I am giving a talk in the online seminar series on Economic Principles in Cell Physiology to present my PhD work on metabolic modeling for auxotroph microbial communities.
2024-08-20: New preprint! My PhD chapter on fitness statistics and how to see the unity in the forest of definitions is now up on BioRxiv. The good news: For experimental work using relative fitness, there is a straightforward best choice!
2024-07-15: First day at the new job! Joining the Orphan Lab in the Department of Geological and Planetary Sciences at Caltech to work on anaerobic microbial metabolism and marine sediment communities, funded by the HFSP Long-Term Postdoctoral Fellowship.
2024-07-13: Last day at Rutgers and the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine and thank you for the great time! I am leaving my PhD group to continue on for the post-doc.
2024-06-03: I am attending the yearly VAAM meeting in Germany, co-chairing a session on environmental microbial systems and presenting my PhD work on low nutrient adaptation. Three exciting science days in Würzburg!
2024-05-14: I am giving a talk at the Rutgers Microbiome Program to present my work on metabolic modelling of auxotroph microbial communities.
2024-05-21: I am giving a presentation on fitness in biological systems at the 126th Statistical Mechanics Conference at Rutgers organized by Joel Leibowitz. 5 minutes per speaker, no slides, only chalk and a blackboard and the intense attention the entire room - great setting for science!
2024-03-04: It’s APS March Meeting time in Minneapolis! I am presenting my PhD chapter on fitness quantification and enjoying the mid-west friendliness!
2024-03-01: I am visiting the Gore Lab at MIT to present in the Physics of Living System seminar series. I am presenting my theory work on bulk fitness measurements for microbial ecology.
2024-01-15: Back from my break! Today is my first day as a post-doc in the group of my PhD supervisor Michael Manhart here at the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, Rutgers. \
2023-12-01: Review article from PhD is out! I co-authored a perspective on microbial population dynamics and how they shape and get shaped by natural selection together with my PhD supervisor.
2023-10-02: Contributing to a two-week workshop at ICTP Trieste! I am coming out of my break to give a 30-min talk on my PhD work on low nutrient growth and lead a tutorial on absolute and relative fitness definitions at the ICTP Advanced School on Microbial Physiology. Great exchanges!
2023-07-31: Last day at ETH Zurich! I am taking a break from science jobs for the next months to spend time with my family in Germany.
2023-06-02: PhD defense done! I successfully defended my PhD work today at ETH Zurich, thank you to the committee for a great scientific discussion and for the wonderful day!
2023-05-22: I am visiting the Bank Lab at University of Bern to present my PhD chapter on what makes a useful fitness statistic.
2023-01-07: First paper out! My PhD chapter on the distribution and evolution of the Monod K got published today in PNAS.
2022-11-29: I am giving a talk on microbial adaptation to low nutrient concentration UMIK Microbiology seminar, EAWAG.
2022-10-05: I am participating in the EMBO Workshop on Molecular Mechanisms in Ecology and Evolution and presenting my work on low nutrient adaptation as a poster. Great science hotspot!
2022-05-29: I am participating in my first environmental microbiology conference, the GRC Marine Microbes. I have a poster for my work on microbial adaptation to low nutrient concentration.
2022-03-14: First big conference! I am attending the APS March Meeting in Chicago and grateful to present my ongoing work on adaptation of the Monod growth response in microbial populations.
2019-12-02: I am giving a talk at the student-led Zurich Interaction Seminar on the parallels between the problem of solar system assembly and the problem of stable co-existence in community ecology. \