Biosystematics, informatics and genomics of the big 4 insect groups: training tomorrow's researchers and entrepreneurs

LIU Si-Pei

LIU Si-Pei is now working in the Entomology Group of the Phyletisches Museum, which belongs to the Institute of Systematic Zoology and Evolutionary Biology of the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena. Her PhD project is on "The morphological background of flight and flightlessness – four wings, two wings, no wings: adaptations towards different modes of locomotion". It will be carried with the newest available technology in insect morphology. Supervisors are Dr. Benjamin Wipfler and Prof. Dr. Rolf G. Beutel.

Si-Pei is from Beijing in the PR of China. She completed her BSc and MSc at China Agricultural University, in both cases with projects focused on the traditional morphological taxonomy of different groups of Diptera (Tabanidae, Therevidae, Scenopinidae, etc.). She often participated in collecting trips covering at least six provinces in China.

Si-Pei has also obtained an additional MSc degree from Washington State University. In her project she analyzed the morphological difference between US and European Apis mellifera using geometric morphometrics (GM). In BIG4, she will combine her morphological background with advanced techniques to explore the evolutionary history of the flight apparatus in the megadiverse lineages of Holometabola.

Read more about Si-Pei's project: "The morphological background of flight and flightlessness – four wings, two wings, no wings: adaptations towards different modes of locomotion"
 
Print this article