Current employment
- July 2022 – June 2025: Postdoctoral Researcher, Section for Molecular Ecology and Evolution, the GLOBE institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Previous employments
-March 2022 – June 2022: Research assistant at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Denmark and the Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon, Portugal
- July 2021 – January 2022: Research assistant at Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- July 2018 – June 2021: PhD student in avian microbiomes at Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- November 2016 – November 2017: Laboratory assistant at Center for Social Evolution, Section for Ecology and Evolution, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- December 2015 – June 2016: Wildlife Educator and Animal Care at Ohio Wildlife Center (Education), OH, USA
Publication and research summary
I have 23 peer-reviewed publications, including in high-profile journals such as Molecular Ecology, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, Frontiers in Microbiology, Trends in Microbiology and Communications Chemistry. Seven of them are part of my PhD thesis and I am the first author in 15 of them. Two additional manuscripts are resubmitted after revisions, three are almost ready to be submitted.
Service as a peer-reviewer (WoS researcher ID: AAC-8777-2019)
I have reviewed 53 manuscripts (including first and second revisions) for the journals Molecular Ecology, ISME Communications, Nature Communications, Communications Biology, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, PeerJ, Genomics, Microbial Ecology, mSphere, Royal Society Open Science, Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology part D: Genomics and Proteomics, Emu, Journal of Avian Biology, BMC Ecology and Evolution, Frontiers in Microbiology, Microbiology spectrum and BMC Animal Microbiome. Additionally, I have done 1 grant review for the Icelandic Research Fund in 2022. I am also an associate editor of the Frontiers in Microbiology editorial board and currently editing a special issue on “Evolution and Diversity of Avian Gut Microbiomes”, where I have edited 2 manuscripts.
Received research grants
- Villum Experiment grant, Villum Foundation ($293,197.00) – Principal Investigator
- 2023 COST action: Wildlife Malaria Network (WIMANET: CA22108), European Cooperation in Science and Technology ($682,455.00) – Co-applicant and Workgroup leader
- 2017 British Ecological Society Mini-Research Grant ($4,000.00) – Principal Investigator
- 2017 OIKOS Society travel grant ($500.00).
- 2017 DANIDA Fellowship Center Travel Grant ($3,200.00) – Principal Investigator
- 2014 Libby Yunger Research Mini Grant, Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana, USA ($1500.00) – Principal Investigator
Honours and Awards
- 2022: PhD award of the year – recognition of excellence during the PhD by the Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- 2015: Departmental and College Honours – Earlham College, Indiana, USA
- 2015: Phi Beta Kappa – recognition of academic achievements by the USA Phi Beta Kappa honour society.
- 2014: Millard S. Markle Award in Biology, Earlham College, Indiana, USA
Teaching and supervision merits
I had pedagogical training through “Introduction to University Pedagogy – PhD and postdoctoral-level” (September 2018) and the “Supervision of MSc and BSc student” (November 2020) at the University of Copenhagen
I have taught lectures in four annual 7.5 ECTS MSc courses at the UCPH, Denmark: Evolutionary Ecology (2018-current), Ornithology (2019), Invasion Biology (2023) and Animal Behaviour and Communication (2024).
I have co-supervised two BSc and four MSc student projects, and I was the field supervisor for two additional BSc students. Additionally, I have supervised a visiting PhD student for three months and I am partially supervising two PhD students on utilising airborne eDNA for biodiversity monitoring in my current position.
Managerial and Organisational merits
Organisational merits
2024 Workshop on avian host and malaria associations at the COST action WIMANET (CA22108) annual meeting in Cluj-Napoca, Romania (February)
2024 Symposium on “Non-invasive molecular methods for biodiversity monitoring in tropical ecosystems” - European conference of Tropical Ecology in Lisbon, Portugal (February) – Co-organizer
2023 Symposium on “Eco-evolutionary dynamics of Avian Microbiomes” - European Ornithological Union meeting in Lund, Sweden (August) – Co-organizer
2023 Round table discussion on methodological challenges related to bird gut microbiomes- European Ornithological Union meeting in Lund, Sweden (August) – Co-organizer
Leadership merits
2023-2027 Work group leader (Identifying the drivers of spatiotemporal variation in multi-host-parasite communities) - COST action WIMANET (CA22108)
2023-2027 Managing committee member - COST action WIMANET (CA22108)
Selected poster and oral presentations
• e3Talk, Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental changes (CE3C), Faculty of Science, University of Lisbon, Portugal (invited talk). "Microbiomes below our feet: factors driving cave bacterial community structures" (15th Feb., 2024).
• European Society for Tropical Ecology Conference, Lisbon, Portugal (talk). “Living with toxins: convergent modifications of sodium channels against deadly batrachotoxin in New Guinean toxic birds” (12th – 16th Feb., 2024).
• Danish Microbiological Society Annual Congress, Copenhagen, Denmark (poster). “Mound compartments and soil nutrients, but not symbiotic Podaxis fungi, drive microbial landscapes in Trinervitermes termite colonies” (13th Nov., 2023).
• European Ornithological Union meeting, Lund, Sweden (poster). “Identifying optimal air filters to collect airborne eDNA for bird monitoring Identifying optimal air filters to collect airborne eDNA for bird monitoring” (21st – 25th August 2023).
• Gordon Research Conference on Animal Microbial Symbiosis, Tuscany, Italy (poster). “Interplay between diet and gut microbiomes differ between two sympatric closely related omnivorous African viverrids” (18th – 23rd June 2023).
• KSHITIJ foundation seminar series, Gujarat, India (online talk). Bodawatta, K. H. “Birds in a microbial world: How do bird microbiomes facilitate host ecology and evolution” (16th May 2023).
• Evolution and Population genetICs in Denmark (EPIC) conference (talk). “Eco-evolutionary dynamics of avian gut microbiomes” (15th August 2022).
• Danish Microbiological Society Annual Congress, Denmark (poster). “Nutrient-limited subarctic caves harbor diverse and complex soil microbiomes” (11th Nov., 2021).
• Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyväskylä, Finland (invited seminar). “Drivers of avian-gut microbiome associations” (28th Oct., 2021).
• 2021Molecular Ecology and Evolution lab, Department of Biology, Lund University, Sweden (invited seminar). “Barriers and gradients in avian-gut microbiome associations” (14th Oct., 2021).
• Society of tropical ecology (invited seminar). “Avian gut-microbiomes of New Guinea: Are there any barriers and gradients?” (5th Oct., 2021).
• ASM World Microbe Forum (poster). “Species-specific but Not Phylosymbiotic Gut Microbiomes of New Guinean Passerine Birds Are Shaped by Diet and Flight-associated Gut Modifications” (June 2021).
• Danish Microbiological Society Annual Congress, Denmark (poster). “Cloacal swabs and alcohol bird specimens are good proxies for compositional analyses of gut microbial communities of Great tits (Parus major)” (Nov. 2019).
• Gordon Research Conference on Animal Microbial Symbiosis, USA (poster). “The gut microbiota of Parus major (Great Tits) flexibly responds to macronutrient dietary contents” (June 2019).
• International Biogeography Society Biennial Conference, Malaga, Spain (poster/flash talk). “Avian blood parasite prevalence is governed by host communities and colonization histories” (Jan. 2019).
• Danish Microbiological society Conference, Denmark (poster/flash talk). “Impact of fungus-farming termite fungal diet on the gut microbiota of the omnivorous cockroach Pycnoscelus surinamensis” (Nov. 2018).