SCIENCE COMMITTEE

Pablo Tubaro

Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales 
Argentina

Pablo L. Tubaro is a Principal Researcher at the National Research Council of Argentina (CONICET), as well as Curator of Birds and Director of the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MACN) in Argentina. Since 2004 he has been involved in DNA barcoding and served as a member of the iBOL Consortium’s Science Committee, and Chair of the Steering Committee of the All Birds Barcoding Initiative. He has taught behavioral ecology, systematics and evolution of vertebrates at the University of Buenos Aires for more than 25 years. His main research interest deals with the evolutionary biology of birds including systematics and phylogeography of Neotropical birds, hybridization and speciation, and comparative studies concerning the evolution of morphological and behavioral traits.

Rouben Aroutiounian

Yerevan State University
National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia
Armenia

Dr. Rouben Aroutiounian is Professor of Genetics and the Head of the Department of Genetics and Cytology of Yerevan State University. He is a corresponding member of National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia (NAS RA) and Academician-Secretary of Division of Natural Sciences of NAS RA. Rouben Aroutiounian is a specialist in ecological and population genetics and in molecular cytogenetics. His research of the last years is specialized in the field of plants genetics, especially he had oral presentations in COST FA 1003 annual meetings in Saloniki (2011), Sofia (2012) and Lisbon (2014), Vine and Wine Congresses in Mainz (2016), and Geneva (2019) on grape phenotyping and genotyping. He has more than 300 papers, 90 of them in peer reviewed international journals. Prof. Rouben Aroutiounian is referee for several SCI journals, Editor and Vice-Editor of biological journals in Armenia and Member of the editorial board of “Molecular Cytogenetics”.

Bardukh Gabrielyan

Scientific Center of Zoology and Hydroecology
National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia
Armenia

Bardukh Gabrielyan is the head of Ichthyology department and the director of the Scientific Center of Zoology and Hydroecology of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Armenia. He is scientifically leading ichthyological and hydroecological research, substantially contributing to the protection and conservation of terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity of Armenia. During more than 40 years of dedicated work Prof. Gabrielyan has been hugely contributing to the preservation of the ecosystem services of Lake Sevan which has undergone severe anthropogenic impact that resulted in the depletion of fish resource, deterioration of water quality, and loss of biodiversity. He is author of the book ‘’Fishes of Lake Sevan’’ that includes an overview of the 70 years of work of the institution on the state of the fish populations in Lake Sevan, and a co-author of two books on the ecological condition of the lake during the periods of water level fluctuations and rise, both issued as a result of Russian-Armenian biological expeditions. As a director, Prof. Gabrielyan launched and supported creation of several new directions in the Center such as applied hydroecology, fish stock assessment, molecular parasitology. He is leading the CaBOL project in the Center.

Mark Stevens

South Australian Museum
Australia

Mark completed his B.Sc. (Honours) on native bees at Flinders University in 1997. He received a doctoral scholarship from the University of Waikato in New Zealand where he completed his Ph.D. on amphipods and Antarctic springtails in 2003. He then moved to Massey University (The Allan Wilson Centre for Molecular Ecology and Evolution) as a postdoctoral researcher working with Prof. David Penny which allowed Mark to continue his Antarctic research. In 2004, he was awarded a four-year postdoctoral fellowship from the New Zealand Foundation for Research Science and Technology. In 2008 Mark joined the Museum as Research Scientist in the Terrestrial Invertebrates Section. Mark currently holds an Associate Professor (Affiliate) position at the University of South Australia.

Mark’s research interests include invertebrates, with a focus on Collembola, nematodes, tardigrades, and rotifers, and Hymenoptera. A key aspect of his current work is an integrated molecular, systematic and palaeoecologicalic/phylogeographic diversification to be traced from origins to the present and contrasted against climate/biome shifts (e.g. aridification).

Nikolaus Szucsich

Natural History Museum Vienna
Austria

Nikolaus Szucsich coordinates the Austrian Barcode of Life initiative. His research topics span many aspects of organismic zoology, from integrative systematics and DNA barcoding of arthropods, to phylogenetics and phylogenomics, to evolutionary and functional morphology of arthropods, and theoretical aspects of evolutionary biology. His main groups of interest are myriapods and primarily wingless insects, with a special love for neglected groups like jumping bristletails, proturans, pauropods, and symphylans. He has worked at the Universities of Vienna Rostock, Hamburg and Salzburg, and currently is associated with the Natural History Museum of Vienna.

Tatsiana Lipinskaya

Scientific & Practical Center of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus for Bioresources
Belarus

Tatsiana Lipinskaya is a lead research scientist of the Laboratory of Hydrobiology at the Scientific and Practical Center of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus for Bioresources  in Minsk, Belarus. She received her M.S. degrees in Biological Sciences (Graduate School of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus; 2009) and in Marine Biodiversity and Conservation (Ghent University, Belgium; 2014) and her PhD in Hydrobiology (Scientific and Practical Center for Bioresources; 2015). Her primary focus of research is ecological and taxonomic studies on freshwater zoobenthos. Tatsiana completed the Global Taxonomy Initiative Training Course on Rapid Identification of Invasive Alien Species for Achieving Aichi Biodiversity Target 9 at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario at the University of Guelph in 2015. In 2018, she received a grant from the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Japan Biodiversity Fund to organize the Global Taxonomy Initiative training course hosted in Minsk, Belarus. She has served as the Belarusian representative in the European Cost Action DNAqua-Net since March 2018. Tatsiana’s main DNA barcoding interests concern freshwater ecosystems, with a particular focus on aquatic alien invertebrates and the EPT (Ephemeroptera Plecoptera Tricoptera) group.

Guilherme Oliveira

Instituto Tecnológico Vale
Brazil

Guilherme Oliveira is a senior researcher and leader of the Environmental Genomics group at the Instituto Tecnológico Vale. His group is focused on describing the Amazon environment from a molecular perspective, using DNA barcodes, genomics, metagenomics, metaproteomics, and computational biology. This work contributes to the molecular description and resolution of species, the understanding of their natural history, adaptive traits, and environmental monitoring, among others. The taxonomic space explored ranges from microbes to plants, invertebrates, fish, and bats. The overall aim is to contribute to the conservation of species while enabling responsible industrial activities and supporting environmental restoration. He is also involved with the Brazilian Barcode of Life initiative (BrBOL).

Georgi Bonchev

Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Bulgaria

Georgi Bonchev is Senior Assistant Professor and Head of the Department of Genome Dynamics and Stability at the Institute of Plant Physiology and Genetics (IPPG) at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The primary research of Georgi Bonchev is focused on the development of DNA markers, mainly based on transposable elements, for genome identification and assessment of natural and mutant genetic diversity in plants. This work contributes to tackling scientific issues such as plant genome response to abiotic stress and a better understanding of genetic mechanisms underlying evolutionary processes. Georgi’s group also provides genotyping and characterization of varieties, hybrid lines, and other plant germplasm resources supporting breeding research.

Recently, Dr. Georgi Bonchev’s interests have focused on DNA barcoding wishing to promote the large-scale introduction of this technology in Bulgaria. He currently leads the largest national DNA barcoding project, BULCode, supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of Bulgaria under the operational program European Scientific Networks. The primary goal of the project initiative is to enhance the knowledge and networking capacity of IPPG and its Bulgarian partner Institute of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research (IBER) in DNA barcoding technologies and their use for taxonomic assessment of Bulgarian plant biodiversity and its cataloging. A strategic partnership with the University of Helsinki, Department of Agricultural Sciences, is the key to achieving the goal. The follow-up project’s impact is to pave the way for developing the DNA barcoding community in Bulgaria.

Mehrdad Hajibabaei

Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph
Canada

Dr. Hajibabaei has strong expertise in molecular evolutionary biology and bioinformatics. His research is focused on the use of genomics information for biodiversity analysis, ranging from the elucidation of deep branches on the tree of life to the establishment and application of DNA barcodes. He has been one of the pioneers in the use of high-throughput genomics technologies, such as microarrays and Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS), for the assessment of biodiversity in samples as varied as natural health products to bulk environmental samples. He currently leads ‘Sequencing the Rivers for Environmental Assessment and Monitoring’ (STREAM), a new environmental DNA metabarcoding project supported by Genome Canada, World Wildlife Fund Canada (WWF), and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). This project will monitor and assess the health of Canada’s freshwater systems with enhanced diagnostic resolution and speed.

Dr. Hajibabaei has aided the establishment of both the Canadian Barcode of Life Network and the International Barcode of Life Consortium. Additionally, he has raised over $9 million in research funds from various agencies and the industrial sector. He has served on advisory and review panels for international organizations and funding agencies, and has collaborated with various regulatory agencies and industries. 

Chenxi Liu

Institute of Plant Protection, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
China

Dr. Chenxi Liu is an Associate Professor at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), in Beijing, China. He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Entomology from China Agricultural University (CAU). In 2007, Dr. Liu earned his Ph.D. degree in Agricultural Entomology from CAU, and then worked as a postdoctoral researcher until 2011 in the Institute of Plant Protection of CAAS, with specialization in the insect resistance to the Bacillus thuringiensis toxin. He joined the Sino-American Biological Control Laboratory, IPP-CAAS and started to serve as an associate professor in 2012. Dr. Liu’s current research interests include the development of biological control agents for insect pest management, nutrigenomics of beneficial insects, and biodiversity of insect pest and their natural enemies.

Mailyn González

Alexander von Humboldt Institute
Colombia

Mailyn González leads the Conservation Genetics Laboratory at the Institute Alexander von Humboldt, in Colombia. She has been coordinating activities of the iBOL Colombia network since 2010, in particular, organizing national symposia and training. She has been participating in projects seeking to enrich the DNA barcode libraries for plants, vertebrates, fungi, and insects, and is currently conducting DNA metabarcoding projects of soils in strategic ecosystems. Her background is in plant community ecology and she is interested in phylogenetic diversity and the use of genetic information for biodiversity management.

José Alfredo Hernández Ugalde

Comisión Nacional para la Gestión de la Biodiversidad
Costa Rica

José Alfredo Hernández is a Genetic Access Regulator Officer in Costa Rica’s National Commission for Biodiversity Development (CONAGEBIO). He received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Genetic and Molecular Biology from the Universidad de Costa Rica. His post-graduation research was on the phylogenetic relationships of pejibaye palm (Peach Palm, Bactris gasipaes) with its wild relatives. Then, for three years he worked in biotechnology of Plant Tissue Culture in vitro, mainly with orchids and other ornamentals. Since 2006, he has been part of CONAGEBIO as a Genetic Access Regulator, an advisor in conservation topics, and as a member of the Biosecurity Technical Commission. Simultaneously, he is the head of the delegation for Costa Rica-GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility). His primary interest is facilitating access to information about Costa Rican biodiversity for its use in education, conservation, public policies, the private sector, and research.

Diego Inclán Luna

Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad
Ecuador

Diego J. Inclán obtained his master’s degree in Biological Sciences at Wright State University in the US, and a Ph.D. in Plant Protection-Entomology at the Universitá degli Studi di Padova in Italy. He is involved in collaborative work with national and international institutions. His main research interests are in entomology, systematics, ecology, biodiversity; with a focus on Tachinidae parasitoids and landscape ecology. He is currently Executive Director of the National Institute of Biodiversity (INABIO), Professor at the Central University of Ecuador, and President of the Entomological Society of Ecuador.

Samy Zalat

Suez Canal University
Egypt

Dr. Samy Zalat is a Professor of Taxonomy and Ecology at the Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt and the Chairman of Nature and Science Foundation, Cairo, Egypt. He is the first biologist to work in South Sinai after Egypt regained it from Israel in 1982 and he has worked there ever since. He completed his M.Sc. surveying bees and wasps visiting wild plants in 1984. He received a doctoral scholarship funded by the Egyptian government, and, in 1989, completing his Ph.D. at Nottingham University on the taxonomy and biochemistry of the potter wasps (subfamily: Eumeninae) of Egypt. He continued his research in the Sinai Peninsula and in 2002 he was awarded the Egyptian National Prize in Biology. He has participated in work that has supported the declaration of St. Katherine as a National Park in Egypt and has led the project to map the biodiversity of Egypt from 2004-2008 (BioMAP-Egypt).

Zalat’s research interests include studying the biodiversity of Sinai Peninsula and examining the effect of isolation and speciation in different taxa of the wadi (valley) systems in the high mountains of St. Katherine. Along with his collaborators, he is studying different taxa in Sinai including wild flora, bees, wasps, butterflies, small mammal (Acomys dimidiatus) and their parasites. Recently, his interests have focused on the human dimension to conservation and he has established an NGO named Nature and Science Foundation to work with local people and to publicize biodiversity to different audiences in Egypt and worldwide.

MARKO MUTANEN

University of Oulu
Finland

Marko Mutanen is the Senior Curator and molecular systematist at the University of Oulu, Finland. He has been a coordinator of the Finnish DNA barcoding initiative since its start in 2011. He is the Principal Investigator of the Insect Genomics Systematics group and presently leads the research project “Advancing the genomic revolution of species delimitation”, funded by the Academy of Finland. His research relies on the strong conviction that the taxonomic impediment, that is our current inability to manage the huge biodiversity of Earth by traditional means, should and could be resolved by genomic means, and he proposes to shift taxonomy from morphology-driven practices to genomic approaches. He is particularly interested in developing better ways to delimit species under various evolutionary settings. His primary model research group is Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), but he is increasingly focusing on sawflies (Symphyta) too.

RODOLPHE ROUGERIE

Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle
France

Rodolphe Rougerie is a researcher and curator of Lepidoptera collections at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris. Since 2016, he is the scientific coordinator of the Service for Molecular Systematics, a molecular biology platform within the Museum. His research activities are directed toward documenting and understanding the outstanding diversity of terrestrial invertebrates on Earth. Although not exclusively, his main focus is on Lepidoptera, with a special interest on the systematics and evolutionary history of two emblematic families: Saturniidae (Wild Silkmoths) and Sphingidae (Hawkmoths). While a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario, at the University of Guelph Rodolphe led global DNA barcoding campaigns for Saturniidae and Sphingidae whose DNA barcode libraries are now nearly comprehensive (ca. 5000 species and subspecies). This work served as the cornerstone for the development of two nationally funded projects investigating the macroecology and the evolutionary dynamics of these moths. Through multiple national and international collaborations, his DNA barcoding activities also extend to other taxa (e.g. Coleoptera, Oligochaeta) addressing ecological questions in temperate and tropical regions.

David Tarkhnishvili

Ilia State University
Georgia

David is the director of the Institute of Ecology at Ilia State University, Tbilisi; Georgia’s leading scientific institution for  biodiversity, ecology, and evolutionary biology. He is also a dean of the School of Natural Science and Medicine. He got his university education from Tbilisi State University in Georgia, his Ph.D. from the Institute of Ecology in Ekaterinburg, Russia; and conducted postdoctoral studies in Britain and Germany. His research interests and scientific publications include  population and evolutionary biology (mostly that of amphibians and reptiles, but also other organisms, including trouts, land snails, wolves, mice, and humans), speciation, and historical biogeography, especially that of the Caucasus ecoregion and west Asia. Current research projects focus on the evolutionary biology of the Caucasian rock lizards. He is a co-leader of the German-Georgian-Armenian project CaBOL (Caucasus Barcoding of Life Project).

Jonas Astrin

Zoological Research Museum A. Koenig
Germany

Jonas Astrin is the Biobank curator at Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig in Bonn. The facility stores animal and environmental DNA, fixed tissue and viable cells, and conducts methodological work, and is active in biodiversity biobanking networks. Jonas is a founding member of German Barcode of Life (GBOL), and of Caucasus Barcode of Life (CaBOL) established in 2020 to focus primarily on Georgian and Armenian biodiversity. Jonas’s molecular taxonomic work initially focused mostly on spiders and weevils. He recently launched the Forensic Genetics for Species Protection project, also known as FOGS, which develops molecular markers with the aim to reduce illegal wildlife trade.

Axel Hausmann

Bavarian State Collection of Zoology
Germany

Axel Hausmann is Leader of the Entomology Department at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology, Munich, and curator of the Lepidoptera collection. He is scientifically overseeing the DNA barcoding projects at the Museum aiming in assembling comprehensive DNA libraries and developing metabarcoding applications. His research focus is on the integrative taxonomy of geometrid moths and he leads the international research initiative ‘Forum Herbulot’. In the last 13 years, he has provided major contributions to the DNA campaigns on Geometridae worldwide (with some 23,000 species and 170,000 sequences) and on the fauna of Bavaria and Germany (with some 24,000 species and 190,000 sequences).

Panagiotis Madesis

Institute of Applied Bioscience – CERTH, University of Thessaly
Greece

Dr. Panagiotis Madesis studied at the Faculty of Agriculture at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH) and his PhD studies on biotechnology in AUTH. The last year of his doctoral thesis, he moved to the University of Manchester as a Marie Curie fellow in the Laboratory of Plant Science with emphasis on the genetic manipulation of the chloroplast genome. During this period, he worked on a number of research programs. In 2004, he was given a postdoctoral position in the Laboratory of Plant sciences in the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Manchester. From 2008 until 2020 he has been Researcher in the Institute of Applied Biosciences (INAB) of the National Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH). From 2020 he has been appointed as an Ass. Professor of Molecular Biology in the University of Thessaly and also holds the position of collaborative professor at INAB/CERTH. His scientific interests focus among others on plant genotyping and biodiversity assessment through plant species identification, these studies have allowed him to develop a novel methodology for plant species identification, and also the traceability and detection of possible fraud in commercial products. For this activity, in 2013 was bestowed a distinction by the Ministry of Rural Development and the President of the Hellenic Republic. He is actively involved in Greek biodiversity identification and biodiversity protection.

Jerome Hui

The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Hong Kong

Jerome is currently an associate professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong where he is Director of the Molecular Biology program. He is also a member of the Cell and Molecular Biology, Environmental Science, and Molecular Biotechnology programmes in the School of Life Sciences. Jerome received his PhD from the University of Oxford, and postdoctoral training from the University of Manchester and the University of Oxford. As an evolutionary biologist and zoologist, he is keenly interested in studying arthropods, cnidarians, invertebrates, and cross-kingdom interactions. He is also interested in biotechnology, genomics, molecular ecology, and biodiversity conservation.

Vikas Kumar

Zoological Survey of India
India

Vikas Kumar is an eminent molecular taxonomist from India, with wide interest in studying molecular phylogeny of various faunal groups and exploring the faunal diversity with cutting edge tools. His core interest lies with the insect order Thysanoptera for an evolutionary understanding of their great diversity across India. He applies high-depth sequencing technology to unveil the phylogenetic working at all hierarchical levels, from populations to basal relationships of various animal taxa ranging from DNA barcoding to comparative mitogenomics. In recent years, he has focused on metagenomics approaches and various platforms for studying entire complex communities in environmental samples for analysis of species richness and phylogeny. With an interdisciplinary approach, Vikas is eager to study environmental DNA (eDNA) to characterize complex communities in soil and water as well as gut contents of insects using shotgun sequencing to explore ecological assemblages.

Leonardo Dapporto

Università di Firenze
Italy

Leonardo Dapporto leads the Numerical and Experimental Zoology laboratory in the Department of Biology at the Università di Firenze in Italy. Studying the evolution of butterfly biodiversity through time and space, Leonardo has led comprehensive DNA barcoding initiatives, including creating a complete library for Western European butterflies. Leonardo established the first phylogenetic tree for all European species and an extensive dataset of traits. He also maintains and is an author of the recluster R package, a statistical tool for the spatial analysis of biodiversity patterns. By combining large amounts of DNA barcoding data with species traits and phylogeny, he has revealed unexpected layers of insular diversity, the relationships between genetic differentiation and functional traits, the first intraspecific zoogeographic maps for Europe, and a generalization for the “southern richness and northern purity” paradigm. Leonardo has combined DNA barcoding, nuclear markers, geometric morphometrics, gas chromatography/Mass spectrometry with integrative taxonomy in his research. Where discoveries are infrequent with European butterflies, Leonardo’s approach has revealed several cryptic European butterfly species, including Spialia rosae, Muschampia alta, and Zerynthia cassandra. He has also clarified the distribution and the phylogeography of many other groups, including Polyommatus, Leptidea, Spialia, Melanargia, Lasiommata,and others.

Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat

Universite Saint-Joseph
Lebanon

Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat is a Professor of Plant Genetics and the Director of the Department of Life and Earth Science at the Saint-Joseph University (USJ) of Beirut, Lebanon. She is also the co-founder and vice-president of “Jouzour Loubnan”, an NGO aiming to restore and rehabilitate the most degraded landscapes in Lebanon. Her research employs genomic tools to examine biodiversity in Eastern Mediterranean countries, and to investigate plant and animal species phylogeny, phylogeography, and their historical evolutionary processes. Magda’s DNA barcoding interest lies in endemic plants and native animals. Her recent interest concentrates on eDNA metabarcoding deciphering the role of animal wildlife in ecological restoration processes. The results of her research have allowed her to develop conservation policies and forest ecosystem restoration strategies that are optimizing the survival of tree populations in the face of climate change.

Manuel Elías-Gutiérrez

El Colegio de la Frontera Sur
Mexico

A biologist from the Facultad de Estudios Superiores Iztacala (National Autonomous University of Mexico, UNAM), graduate studies in the Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biológicas from the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN), Mexico (Doctor in Sciences). Speciality in Lake Zooplankton in Ghent University, Belgium. During 18 years was an academician in the Faculty Iztacala (UNAM) where reached the level of Professor in Zoology. Here he was awarded the Academic Merit distinction in 1996. Later he received the best research article and best academic career in the state (Council of Science, Quintana Roo, 2011). Currently, he is a senior researcher at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Chetumal unit, where his primary focus of research is ecological and taxonomic studies on freshwater zooplankton using integrative taxonomy, in particular from the waterbodies from the Yucatan Peninsula.

Dimitris Koureas

Naturalis Biodiversity Center
Netherlands

Dimitris Koureas is chief information officer at Naturalis Biodiversity Center and executive director and co-initiator of the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) European Research Infrastructure. He holds a PhD in biosystematics with post-doctoral expertise in biodiversity informatics and the research data lifecycle. He is an invited lecturer, teaching biodiversity informatics across European universities. Dimitris is a member of the Technical Advisory Board of RDA and executive boards of several multi-partner multi-million European projects. He also serves as a member of the steering group of the Dutch national infrastructure on DNA-based biomonitoring (ARISE), as well as various other board-level positions of international organizations.

Susie Wood

Cawthron Institute 
New Zealand

Susie Wood is a Senior Scientist at the Cawthron Institute in Nelson, New Zealand.  She obtained her PhD from Victoria University (Wellington, NZ) in 2006 specialising in cyanobacterial blooms and toxins. Susie leds and contributes to multiple research programmes, supervises students, and regularly undertakes consulting projects for government departments and regional authorities on a range of topics related to cyanobacteria, water quality, molecular ecology and biomonitoring. She has been particularity active in advocating for the incorporation of molecular tools in biomonitoring and biodiversity projects, including the development of novel molecular based indices. She co-leds a nationwide programme that aims to obtain an overview of the health for 10% of New Zealand’s lakes (www.lakes380.com) using paleo-environmental reconstructions – the analysis includes many molecular techniques.

Torbjørn Ekrem

Norwegian Barcode of Life Network
Norway

Torbjørn Ekrem is professor of biosystematics and the Curator of Diptera, Hymenoptera, Arachnida and a few minor insect orders at the NTNU University Museum. His research interest includes evolution, systematics and biogeography, in particular of non-biting midges of the family Chironomidae (Diptera). His research focuses on taxonomy, biology, phylogeny, zoogeography and molecular systematics of genera and species of the tribe Tanytarsini, but he is also involved in work with other groups of animals and plants. The last few years he has been heavily involved in various projects testing and using DNA barcoding in biosystematics and freshwater biomonitoring. He is actively engaged in the EU COST-Action DNAqua-Net, and chair the Norwegian Barcode of Life network and project (NorBOL) with the goal of developing this initiative into a national infrastructure on DNA Barcoding.

Nazeer Ahmed

Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering & Management Sciences
Pakistan

Professor Nazeer Ahmed serves as the Dean for Graduate Studies at Balochistan University of IT, Engineering and Management Sciences in Quetta, Pakistan. He attained his doctoral degree from Wuerzburg University, Germany. His Ph.D. research explored the early signaling events involved in plant-microbe interactions, particularly plant interactions with mutualistic bacteria. These mutualistic bacteria are well known for their positive effects on plants growth through different mechanisms involving in particular phytohormones production and nitrogen fixation. Currently, the main focus of his work is in developing DNA-based biodiversity inventories of the different ecosystem in Balochistan, the largest province of Pakistan. He has also been involved in Global Malaise Project.

Rina Ramirez

Peruvian Barcode of Life Network
Peru

Rina Ramirez is a Professor at Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in the Faculty of Biological Sciences, and a member of its Museum of Natural History. She teaches courses in ‘Animal diversity’, ‘Bioinformatics’ and ‘Molecular Systematics’. Her main research interests are in molecular systematics and phylogeography of continental mollusks. She was part of the Peruvian Committee for the CATRTA Project “DNA barcoding to support the conservation of biodiversity, its sustainable use, and trade”.

Ian Fontanilla

University of Philippines Diliman
Philippines

Ian Kendrich Fontanilla is the Director and Associate Professor of the Institute of Biology (IB), College of Science, University of the Philippines (UP), Diliman. He is also the Principal Investigator of the DNA Barcoding Laboratory at IB and the Program Director for Biodiversity of the Philippine Genome Center, University of the Philippines. He obtained his B.Sc. Biology and M.Sc. Biology (Genetics) at UP Diliman and Ph.D. in Genetics at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. Ian’s main research interest is molecular phylogenetics, with an emphasis on the evolutionary history of Philippine endemic species. His team at IB is involved in various collaborative work with the Biodiversity Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to populate the Philippine reference database for DNA barcodes of Philippine native and endemic species that could be used in wildlife forensics.

Michal Grabowski

University of Lodz
Poland

Michal Grabowski is evolutionary biologist and zoologist at the Faculty of Biology & Environmental Protection at the University of Lodz, Poland. He is interested in biodiversity patterns and evolutionary processes as well as in the problem of biological invasions in European inland waters and coastal ecosystems. He focuses on historical factors shaping the present, particularly cryptic, diversity of various model organisms, predominantly malacostracan crustaceans. For about a decade he has led several research projects dealing with drivers of aquatic diversity in endemism hotspots, such as the Mediterranean Region, Carpathian Arch, and European ancient lakes. Michal is also an expert in integrative taxonomy of freshwater amphipods. As a consequence his main DNA barcoding interests concern freshwater ecosystems and use of the novel methods in biomonitoring. He is a management committee member actively engaged in functioning of the EU COST-Action DNAqua-Net. In co-operation with various international collaborators, he is building up a DNA-barcode reference library for European malacostracan crustaceans.

Filipe Costa

University of Minho 
Portugal

Filipe Costa is Assistant Professor at the University of Minho, Portugal, since 2008, where he leads the research group on Molecular Ecology and Biodiversity of the Centre for Molecular and Environmental Biology (CBMA). Filipe joined the Barcode of Life initiative in September 2003, serves as Portugal delegate in iBOL, and chaired the 2nd Conference of the European Consortium for the Barcode of Life (ECBOL2: 2-4 June 2010). He has been principal investigator of several research grants, leading the campaign for DNA barcoding Portuguese Marine Life, and he is one of the Portuguese representatives in the management committee of the European Cost Action DNAqua-Net. Filipe’s main DNA barcoding interests concern marine life, with a particular focus on fish and crustaceans, among other major groups of marine invertebrates (e.g. Annelida and Mollusca). Recent research interests and activities concentrate on (e)DNA metabarcoding, with particular focus on estuarine and marine ecosystems, macro and meiobenthos, and zooplanktonic communities.

Mihael Cristin Ichim

National Institute of Research and Development for Biological Sciences
Romania

Mihael C. Ichim is a Scientific Researcher at the “Stejarul” Research Centre for Biological Sciences, a branch of the Romanian National Institute of Research and Development for Biological Sciences (NIRDBS). He is the leader of the Molecular Biology and Ecology Group and coordinator of the DNA barcoding laboratory. He has completed a B.Sc. (Biochemistry), M.Sc. (Molecular Genetics), M.Sc. (Biosafety in Plant Biotechnology), and a Ph.D. (Genetics).

Deriving from his primary research interest – plant biosafety – he has a keen interest for the monitoring, assessment, and DNA barcoding of Romanian flora and fauna to better understand the anthropogenic drivers influencing the biodiversity loss, focusing on protected areas and vulnerable environments.

Ivona Kautmanova

Slovak National Museum – Nature History Museum 
Slovakia

Ivona Kautmanova is the Curator of the mycological collections and the head of the Botanical Department at the Slovak National Museum-Natural History Museum. Her research interest includes taxonomy and systematics as well as ecology and conservation of macromycetes. Her research focuses on the taxonomy of Basidiomycetes of the family Clavariaceae and Ascomycetes of the family Clavicipitaceae. Since 2015, she has been involved in building a DNA laboratory at the Museum, with the aim of participating in iBOL. Recently, she is the main representative of the Slovak Barcode of Life (SK-BOL) and is actively working on building the SK-BOL network.

Michelle van der Bank

University of Johannesburg
South Africa

Michelle van der Bank received her PhD in Botany from the Rand Afrikaans University (now University of Johannesburg, South Africa) in 1996. She is a Professor in Botany at the University of Johannesburg and Director of the African Centre for DNA Barcoding (ACDB). ACDB’s mission is to fill the knowledge gap and strengthen research frameworks for international, regional and inter-institutional co-operation in Africa in the field of DNA technology for biodiversity science. Her research group uses molecular phylogenetics, comparative analyses and intensive fieldwork to address questions relevant to biodiversity conservation in Africa.

Brent Emerson

Spanish National Research Council
Spain

Brent is a Professor and Head of the Department of Life Sciences within the Institute of Natural Products and Agrobiology, located on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. He leads a research group with interests in understanding how arthropod diversity emerges within insular systems, how it is structured spatially, and identifying factors that explain this structure. His research uses molecular techniques ranging from reduced genome sequencing within species to single locus sequencing across entire species assemblages, including metabarcoding of bulk arthropod samples. His research program has increasingly become focused on the community as the sampling unit to identify overriding processes driving shared species responses to landscape variation for biotic and abiotic factors. This often entails complex taxonomic challenges that can best be addressed by linking anonymous DNA sequences back to their species of origin, wherein barcoding plays a fundamental role. He is particularly interested in potential synergies for understanding biodiversity that may emerge from integrating barcoding with other genome-based tools and approaches, together with environmental data (e.g. remote sensing), with a special interest in oceanic island systems.

Mathieu Perret

Swiss Barcode of Life Network 
Switzerland

Dr. Mathieu Perret is curator at the Conservatory and Botanical Garden of Geneva, and lecturer at the University of Geneva. His field of research is centered on molecular systematics and evolution of plants with a special focus on palm families Gesneriaceae and Arecaceae. His approach is to combine phylogenetic studies with ecological and biogeographical data to investigate the origin and causes of plant diversity. His lab is currently developing NGS-based methods using targeted gene capture to better resolve phylogenetic relationships in plants. In 2020, Mathieu became chair of the Swiss Barcode of Life Network (SwissBOL) with the goal of developing a reference genetic catalogue for the species living in Switzerland.

Buntika Butcher

Chulalongkorn University
Thailand

Buntika Butcher is an Associate Professor at the Department of Biology in the Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok (Thailand). She received her Ph.D. from Imperial College London under the supervision of Professor Donald Quicke in 2004 on the systematics of parasitic wasps in the subfamily Rogadinae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae). Now, she is the head of the Integrative Ecology Laboratory.

Her research focuses on parasitoid wasps, especially in the family Braconidae. Using DNA barcoding, she is establishing a database of the parasitoids and the parasitoid-host relationships in Thailand with an emphasis on lepidopteran larval hosts. This work has implications for both biodiversity conservation and biocontrol applications as well as in the understanding of evolutionary biology.

Emre Keskin

University of Ankara  
Turkey

Emre Keskin is molecular evolutionary biologist and Associate Professor at the Ankara University, Turkey, where he leads the Evolutionary Genetics Laboratory (eGL). Emre is focused on molecular phylogenetics and (e)DNA (meta)barcoding techniques used to identify biodiversity in aquatic ecosystems across Europe within EU DNAqua-Net Action Network as a management committee member and a working group co-leader. He uses these techniques to study interactions among species in aquatic ecosystems, particularly invasive, endemic and endangered species and their interactions with the environment. Apart from this, his research group, Evolutionary Genetics Laboratory (eGL) is working to analyze epigenetic and metagenomic methods to investigate the evolution of microorganisms, vertebrates, and invertebrates. His working group recently started working on experimental evolution. Emre’s main focus on DNA barcoding concern freshwater and marine fish.

Peter Hollingsworth

Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh  
United Kingdom

Professor Pete Hollingsworth is Director of Science and Deputy Keeper at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. He is also an Honorary Professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a Visiting Professor of the University of Edinburgh, and a Visiting Professor of the University of Johannesburg. His research focuses on understanding and conserving plant biodiversity. He has had a long involvement with the International Barcode of Life Project with a particular focus on the development and application of plant barcode protocols. He has a strong interest in linking scientific research to practical conservation outcomes, and has recently been involved in projects ranging from best-practice guidance for conservation translocations, understanding pest and pathogen threats to plant biodiversity, monitoring illegal trade in protected species, and undertaking large-scale spatial analyses to enhance conservation planning.

Raju Misra

Natural History Museum, London
United Kingdom

Raju Misra is Head of Molecular Biology at the Natural History Museum. His multidisciplinary group oversees method and technology development for applied genomics across a wide range of taxa, and applications including diagnostics, surveillance, reference characterisation, and collections-based research. He previously held leadership positions at Public Health England serving as its Deputy Head of Genomics Research, working with commercial and public bodies to develop and implement innovative clinical diagnostic and identification tools.

Since joining the NHM in 2017, Raju has taken a keen interest in biodiversity monitoring and surveillance using genomic approaches including barcoding and eDNA sequencing. He works closely with government bodies using barcoding and genomics for species identification, especially linked with invasive species, pests, and the wildlife trade. Raju has led the NHM-Darwin Tree of Life’s barcoding activities since 2018; working with colleagues across the UK to barcode and genome sequence thousands of native species.

Thorsten Lumbsch

The Field Museum
United States of America

Thorsten completed his B.Sc. on lichen development at Philipps University Marburg (Germany) in 1989 and completed his Ph.D. on chemotaxonomy of Australian lichens at Essen University (Germany) in 1993, where he was subsequently lecturer (“Privatdozent”). In 2003 he moved to Chicago (USA) to start a position as Assistant Curator at the Field Museum. Thorsten currently holds an Curator position at the Field Museum and is lecturer at the University of Chicago. He also serves as Vice President for Science and Education at the Field Museum. Thorsten’s research interests include lichenized fungi, with a focus on hyperdiverse clades in the tropics of the Old World. He is interested in phylogenetic relationships at different taxonomic levels, including species delimitation, historical biogeography, diversification history, and higher level evolutionary relationships.

Scott Miller

National Museum of Natural History
United States of America

Scott Miller is Deputy Under Secretary at the Smithsonian Institution overseeing Science, Collections, and Interdisciplinary Support, and previously held leadership positions at the National Zoological Park, the National Museum of Natural History, the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Nairobi, Kenya, and the Bishop Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii. He helped establish and lead the Consortium for the Barcode of Life—an international network that worked closely with the Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding in developing DNA-based identification tools to make biodiversity information more widely available and in promoting DNA Barcoding applications in many fields including agricultural pests, ecological monitoring, and wildlife forensics. He also maintains an active collaborative research program that uses DNA barcoding as a backbone to link museum collections and taxonomic information to specimens from ecological field surveys, focusing on the ecology and systematics of herbivorous insects (especially moths), their host plants, and their parasites, primarily in Papua New Guinea and Kenya, with the ultimate goal of understanding how patterns of diversity have been generated and are maintained.