Natural ecosystems are being degraded and lost at an alarming rate under the ever-increasing human pressure that marks the Anthropocene. This threatens the world’s biodiversity and our quality of life. One of the main drivers of this degradation is the perception that natural ecosystems and their biodiversity have low socio-economic value. However, these systems provide critical ‘ecosystem services’: goods and services that are essential for human wellbeing.

My academic mission is to help to quantify the different values that ecosystem services and plant diversity can have in our lives. By quantifying these values, I expect that natural ecosystems and biodiversity will receive more appreciation, ultimately leading to improved conservation. One of the key concepts in my work is the notion of ‘plant blindness’: the inability to observe or recognize the importance of plants. I endeavour to challenge this plant blindness by showcasing, researching and teaching about plant diversity and their related ecosystem services.

I carry out my mission in two different roles; firstly as Curator and Focal Point of the collections at Utrecht University Botanic Gardens, and secondly as a Assistant Professor on Plant Diversity and Ecosystem Services at the Quantitative Biodiversity Dynamics research unit (hereafter ‘QBD’). 

Curator and Focal Point of the collections
As curator at the botanic gardens, it is my responsibility to curate and structure our plant collections for scientific research, education, conservation and showcasing for public display. Main activities include curating the collections (e.g. assessing the potential and delivered value of accessions to the collection, analysing the identity, quality and provenance of accessions, etc.), managing the collection database (i.e. a SQL database that includes data on past and current status of accessions, backgrounds, necessary permits, sampling locations, etc.), carrying out research on the collections (e.g. propagation and testing genetic diversity experiments), and providing workshops and courses on plant diversity (e.g. for RVO/NWVA about CITES plants). Via these activities, valuable output for the academic world is created as our collection is made accessible for use by researchers and other academics to showcase, research and teach about plant diversity and ecosystem services. In my role as the Focal Point of the collections, it is my responsibility to coordinate the curating, research and education activities on our collections and to act as the go-to figure for questions and social outreach activities such as interviews and podcasts. For example, I am responsible for managing and evaluating our contribution to national and international commitments, such as Global Strategy for Plant Conservation and the National Plant Collection (Stichting Nationale Plantencollectie) (advisory and consultancy role). 

Teaching
As an academic teacher, I strive to train a new generation of plant professionals that can help to challenge plant blindness and can help to protect natural ecosystems and their biodiversity. From my network in ecological consultancy and nature conservation, I understand that there is a great need for skilled biologists that know their plants and their importance. Over the last ten years, I have been involved in developing the necessary courses that help train the new generation as well as teaching in several other courses. In addition, as an expert on plant evolution, plant diversity and plant-based ecosystem services, I strive to provide meaningful contributions to other extant curricular courses that feature these knowledge areas. In these ways I have have been or are active in, amongst others, the first year course Evolution and Biodiversity, the extracurricular Introduction in the Dutch Flora course, the second year course on Nature Conservation, Sustainability and Plant diversity (now defunct), the second year course on Taxonomy and Identification, the third year course Biodiversity and Landscape, the third year course Plants Ecosystems and People and the Masters' course Tropical Plant Families. In addition to my involvement with curricular courses, I dedicate much of my teaching efforts to the supervisions of students. Current available student research project can be found on the QBD website.

Research
My doctoral research examined the relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem services (‘BES-relationships’) with specific focus on plant diversity and ecosystem services in tropical forests. The interdisciplinary subject of BES-relationships covers aspects of ecology, economy and social sciences and helps to bridge the gaps between these three disciplines to allow for better nature conservation. At the heart of BES-relationship research lies the question of how we can best quantify ecosystem services, a question that is strongly related to the core aims of QBD. Within QBD, my main contribution is to the focus area on ‘Natural functions and services’ or the relationships between plant diversity and ecosystem services: how and when plant diversity provides goods and services that benefit our wellbeing. Currently, I am the project lead of the long-term research project ‘Project Peperpot’ in Suriname in which we are creating a vegetation map of the Peperpot Nature Reserve with the ultimate aim to research how the relationship between plant diversity and ecosystem services can change over space and time. For this project, each year two Master students carry out an affiliated research project onsite. As helpful output we maintain and host a ongoing Checklist of the Vascular Plants of Peperpot as well as a map of the Park. In addition to project Peperpot, I am currently digitizing an old dataset of tropical forest and tropical savanna vegetation surveys called the ‘Teunissen dataset’ with the aim is to consolidate old and new knowledge on the flora and vegetation of Suriname.

Ancillary activities
In addition to my position at Utrecht University I have been active as scientific advisor for the Trésor Foundation, a Foundation that helps protect a tropical forest nature reserve in French-Guiana, and as a board member of the Van Eeden Foundation, a foundation that provides grants to support research projects in the fields of botany in the Guianas and the Dutch Carribean.