My research expertise deals with light production and manipulation in organisms, embracing the full range of scientific opportunities, from fundamental exploration and mechanistic description to potential application for biomedical, bioengineering and/or biotechnological applications.

I have received my Ph.D. from the Free University of Brussels (Belgium) in Marine Sciences, with emphasis on Marine Biology; therefore my model organisms are mainly marine (brittlestars, worms, snails, fish), yet I also conduct research with freshwater (fish) and terrestrial species (butterfly, birds).

I have been conducting my research at SIO since 2004.

I'm a Marine Biology PhD student, joining the Deheyn Lab in autumn 2020. I'm an evolutionary and community ecologist with an experience/research background in herpetological conservation, and in species and community responses to anthropogenic change. I completed my Bachelor's degree at Hartwick College in New York, my home-state, and my Master's degree at Virginia Commonwealth University.

I am interested in studying biofluorescence from the proximate (what biological compounds and structures fluoresce, and how do they do it?), to the medial (what organisms biofluoresce, and in what ways is biofluorescence meaningful to organisms that do it, or to sympatric organisms; what does biofluorescence do?), to the ultimate (what behavioral and environmental needs and circumstances select for the evolution of biofluorescence?).