I am an evolutionary biologist, interested in understanding the greatest show on Earth. Driven by passion for everything scientific, I have been involved in a variety of research projects, differing in nature. I started with faunistic, nation-wide projects on reptiles, while still at high school. This first hands-on experience perpetuated in me undertaking a BSc Biology degree at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, where I joined several research labs to answer biological problems related to organisms as diverse as honeybees and Slovenian subterranean fauna. Adding more fuel to the fire that was burning inside me, I joined the Evolutionary Zoology Lab at the Slovenian Academy of Arts and Sciences, where I investigated sexual selection and genital evolution of highly sexually-size dimorphic Nephilid spiders. These highly productive projects, supervised by Dr Matjaž Kuntner, resulted in a scientific paper entitled: Coevolution of female and male genital components to avoid genital size mismatches in sexually dimorphic spiders, published in BMC Evolutionary Biology. Collaboration on several other spider projects is still ongoing.

Commitment to working for the greater good of science and education has driven me to shape my character and skills in international universities. My MSc by research project at the National University of Ireland Galway, for which I received a prestigious Irish Research Council scholarship, focused on evolution of cuttlefishes. The project, supervised by Dr Louise Allcock, was mostly molecular in nature, and I received extensive training in modern molecular methods. It also enabled me a 6-week study visit to the Australian Museum (Sydney, Australia) and the National Museum for Nature and Science (Tokyo, Japan), where I conducted morphological investigations into sepiids. I presented our findings at several major conferences, and collaboration with Dr Allcock and her lab is still ongoing.

In October 2017, I joined FishEvo lab in pursuit of throwing light on the evolution of sensory systems in several fish lineages, such as deep-sea fishes, cichlids and cyprinids. The project in question, comparative and interdisciplinary in nature, is entitled: Transcriptomics and developmental plasticity of sensory systems in fishes. During my PhD, I will use whole genome and transcriptome approaches, experiments, and exciting field work in astonishing places (!) to reveal molecular evolution of sensory systems, with a focus on their developmental plasticity. Although my project incorporates amazing African cichlids and European cyprinids, the real intrigue and adventurous spirit in me is driven by charismatic and poorly understood deep-sea fishes. 🔬

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