Matthias is a member of the Department of Zoology at the Charles University in Prague and an associate researcher of the Department of Entomology of the National Museum in Prague. His BIG4-based PhD project, "The Life on the island: leaf-litter insect fauna as a bioindicator of long and short term evolutionary change", supervised by M. Fikáček, is focused on analyzing long- and short-term evolutionary changes in island beetle communities, with New Zealand leaf litter beetles as a model group.
Matthias is of German nationality and completed his Bc. thesis in biochemistry at Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg – it focused on RNA processing in human osteosarcoma cells. During his Bc. studies he started to be more and more attracted by insects, which is why he later started his MSc. thesis in the group of Prof. R. Paxton at the same university, where he was involved as molecular lab assistant and also helped with identification and fieldwork for various project on bees and pollination. His main passion, however, became beetles: he is completing his MSc. thesis on molecular taxonomy and biogeography of cetoniine beetles at the moment, and has several project on ruteline scarabs in progress. Besides his MSc. thesis, he will soon publish several scientific papers on both bees and beetles.
Matthias combines the passion for beetles and insect with the passion for cross-methodology approach to study evolutionary and biodiversity-related problems. He also loves to keep various alive specimens around him, both vertebrates and invertebrates, and likes to share his knowledge both with science fellows and general public around him.
Matthias is of German nationality and completed his Bc. thesis in biochemistry at Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg – it focused on RNA processing in human osteosarcoma cells. During his Bc. studies he started to be more and more attracted by insects, which is why he later started his MSc. thesis in the group of Prof. R. Paxton at the same university, where he was involved as molecular lab assistant and also helped with identification and fieldwork for various project on bees and pollination. His main passion, however, became beetles: he is completing his MSc. thesis on molecular taxonomy and biogeography of cetoniine beetles at the moment, and has several project on ruteline scarabs in progress. Besides his MSc. thesis, he will soon publish several scientific papers on both bees and beetles.
Matthias combines the passion for beetles and insect with the passion for cross-methodology approach to study evolutionary and biodiversity-related problems. He also loves to keep various alive specimens around him, both vertebrates and invertebrates, and likes to share his knowledge both with science fellows and general public around him.
Read more about the project: "The Life on the island: leaf-litter insect fauna as a bioindicator of long and short term evolutionary change"