I am moving back to Austria to start my own lab on Plant-Animal-Interactions at the University of Vienna on March 1st! 😀 It was a dream to get a job close to my hometown, family and friends, and Vienna offers a wonderful reserach environment for me. New projects are in the planning, such as delving more deeply into the biomechanics of buzz pollination in collaboration with colleagues at the Technical University of Vienna. Together with me, my new PhD student Ben Lazarus will start on March 1st to work on µCT scans of Melastomataceae stamens and conduct buzz-pollination experiments. Later this year, I hope to advertise another PhD position to work on pollination and fruit dispersal in the Melastomataceae tribe Pyxidantheae (formerly Blakeeae), which represents an Andean Melastomataceae radiation similar to Merianieae in many, but not all aspects… exciting floral scents, widespread bee buzz-pollination, colorful, somewhat fleshy fruits and repeated changes in flower symmetry – many projects to come, stay tuned!
The Dellinger lab is opening its doors!
