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

Emmanuel Arriaga Varela

Emmanuel 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 "Understanding the biodiversity boom in terrestrial hydrophilid beetles", supervised by M. Fikáček, is focused on analyzing the reasons for the diversity booms in beetles, with terrestrial hydrophilid beetles as a model group.
 
Emmanuel is of Mexican nationality, and completed his Bc. at the University of Guadalajara, and his MSc. at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City, in both cases with projects focused on the central American fauna of endomychid beetles. Subsequently he participated in several projects at the Institute of Ecology in Xalapa in which he helped with the fieldwork and identification of a wide spectrum of leaf litter, coprophilous and necrophilous beetles. Before joining BIG4, he was also teaching biology, ecology and chemistry at middle and high schools, and published 8 scientific publications with descriptions of new species in several beetle families.
 
Emmanuel is a keen naturalist, and his interest reaches far beyond beetles – he participated also on surveys of vertebrates and plants, organizes the exhibitions of biodiversity-focused wildlife photography (partly taken by himself) and spends lots of his time playing chess. In BIG4, he desires to combine his wide field knowledge with methodologies of modern biodiversity research.

Find out more about his project: "Understanding the biodiversity boom in terrestrial hydrophilid beetles"
 
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