May 2025. Our first NPKD-Net paper has been published! The NPKD-network is a global collaboration investigating how two major global change drivers—nutrient enrichment and drought—interact to influence biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and its stability. A special shout-out to our first co-authors, Viviana Bondaruk and Chong Xu, who contributed equally and were instrumental in leading this effort. Their dedication and synergy exemplify the power of collaborative science. I also want to express my gratitude to Yu Qiang for coordinating the Chinese component of the NPKD-network, and to the many colleagues whose data and intellectual contributions made this work possible. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-025-02705-8
October 2024. Our first BioCliVE paper has been published! The Utrecht University Biodiversity and Climate Variability Experiment (UU BioCliVE) explores how plant diversity and changing precipitation patterns shape grassland ecosystems. BioCliVE is designed to unravel the fundamental mechanisms by which higher biological diversity ensures that grasslands can continue to provide multiple ecosystem services even in the context of climate change.https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.10.e133454
September 2024. I am thrilled to share the news that, as of September 1st, I am one of the three Future Food Utrecht ambassadors, specifically for the theme of Nature Inclusive Agriculture. In this new role, I will collaborate with researchers and stakeholders to address one of humanity's most pressing challenges: transitioning towards agricultural landscape management that supports food production, biodiversity recovery, climate resilience, and a healthy environment. Together, we aim to bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and practical, sustainable solutions in agriculture.
March 2024. Delighted to share that my 100th publication has found its home as a senior author in the prestigious Nature Communications! This achievement is more than just a number – it is the result of a fantastic collaboration with Li-Ting Zheng, now Postdoc with Peter Reich at UMich, Kathryn Barry and a stellar team of collaborators spanning the globe. Big thanks to everyone who contributed to this journey! Let's keep pushing the boundaries of knowledge together! https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-46355-z
February 2024. Thrilled to share that I was officially promoted to Associate Professor.
December 2023. My research group has reached noteworthy milestones, having published 20 papers in 2023, matching our output from 2022. This brings me within reach of a remarkable achievement of 100 publications (currently at 99). I am pleased to announce that this accomplishment has earned me the distinction of being ranked as the 7th most prolific researcher in biodiversity research in the Netherlands for the period spanning 2017-2022, as reported by Elsevier. I am honored by this recognition.
April 2023. Together with Rutger Hermsen, we received for the second times the Lecture Price for the best level 2 course for the period 2021-2022 ‘Advanced introduction to statistics and R‘.
April 2023. Together with Merel Soons and Edwin Pos, we received the Lecture Price for the best level 3 course for the period 2021-2022 ‘Biodiversity and Landscape‘.
December 2022. I am honoured to be nominated for the Utrecht University Graduate School of Life Sciences supervisor of the year.
December 2018. Thrilled to be nominated as one of the only 30 UU scientists in the 2018 Highly-Cited Researchers List, which identifies the top 1% of researchers by citations per field and publication year in Web of Science.
April 2018. Together with Rutger Hermsen, we received the Lecture Price for the best level 2 course for the period 2016-2017 ‘Advanced introduction to statistics and R‘.