Lotte Caarls (PhD) from The Netherlands did her MSc at the University of Amsterdam and her PhD thesis on 'Hormonal signalling in plant immunity' at Utrecht University in the Plant-Microbe Interactions group, supervised by Corne Pieterse and Saskia van Wees. After defending her thesis in May 2016, she continued a postdoc on identification of Arabidopsis resistance genes against Phytophthora pathogens in the same lab. With her expertise on phytopathology/ plant physiology she is of great value for our VIDI team which she joined in January 2017 with a maternity leave in between.

Eddie Griese (MSc) from Germany first did his MSc thesis with me at the Laboratory of Entomology (WUR) on 'Testing the evolutionary enlistment hypothesis in nature: Effect of oviposition-induced plant volatiles on plant fitness' (2012). He started his PhD in 2013 on 'Consequences of variation in butterfly egg-killing plant defences on insect communities and plant fitness in the black mustard', at Wageningen University and FU Berlin (Promotors Marcel Dicke and Monika Hilker), conducting experiments mainly under natural conditions. He was partly financed by a stipend from the DAAD and the CRC 973. For his final year 2018, he will be paid by my Aspasia money to hopefully wrap up his thesis and defend it in 2019!

Sophie Chattington (MSc) from Scotland started her PhD beginning of 2016 on 'Monitoring pre- and post release diversity in local Trichogramma egg parasitoid populations' within the BINGO project. She is conducting field work in different locations in Germany. She is located at the group of Andra Thiel and Thomas Hofmeister, Uni Bremen. For more information please check BINGO-ITN.

Georgios Valsamakis (MSc) from Greece did his MSc at the Laboratory of Entomology in Wageningen and his internship at Monika Hilker's lab at the FU Berlin. He was offered a PhD position within the CRC 973 project in September 2016 to work on 'Molecular ecology of cabbage white butterfly egg-mediated effects on brassicaceous host plant anti-herbivore defences'.

Niccolo Bassetti (MSc) from Italy did his MSc at the Laboratory of Plant Breeding (WUR) and his internship at Keygene. He started his PhD within the VIDI project in November 2016 "On the genetic basis of cabbage white butterfly egg-killing hypersensitive response in the cabbage crop Brassica rapa' ((Co-)Promoters: Eric Schranz, Bas Zwaan and Guusje Bonnema).

Giannoula (Anni) Bogka (MSc) from Greece is conducting her PhD on effects of climate and diversification on population structures and host selection behaviour of natural enemies of the olive fruit fly Bactrocera oleae supervised by Bart Pannebakker, Emmanouil Kabourakis, Bas Zwaan and me. This project is part of the large EU projet Life Igit which aims to develop Green Infrastructure (GI) and supporting Sustainable Farming Methods in pilot olive orchards in Greece. She will conduct her field work in the South of Crete. Anni did her MSc thesis with Dani Lucas Barbosa at the Laboratory of Entomology in Wageningen. Welcome to the 2nd floor of Radix building, Anni!

Eva Drukker (MSc) is from the Netherlands and studied biology at Wageningen University. She did her internship research at the Bureau Stadsnatuur, studying arthropods on green roofs. In March, just before the Corona outbreak, she started her PhD on this topic supervised by Prof. Eric Schranz, Casper Quist and me. For the coming four years she will be studying these new ecosystems in our urban landscape. Among other things she is trying to unravel the complicated interactions that take place in these elevated habitats. Besides her research, she is very fond of and experienced in teaching and therefore takes part in two courses that we give at Biosystematics Group. Welcome back to Biosystematics Group, Eva!

Patrick Verbaarschot (MSc) started with us as the new research assistant of our Vidi team! We were colleagues for a long time at the Laboratory of Entomology. I look forward to work with you together and also teach together our great courses Biodiversity of Netherlands and Webs of Terrestrial Diversity. Welcome to the second floor of Radix building and welcome to the team, Patrick!!

Javier Millán Acosta, from Spain, did his bachelor’s in biotechnology at University of Lleida (UdL) and enrolled as MSc Bioinformatics at WUR in 2019. He is started his thesis at BIS in May 2020 and works on the conservation of the sesquiterpene synthesis pathway across Lepidoptera under supervision of Eric Schranz, Lotte Caarls and me. Nice to have you and hope to meet you soon in person!

Klarinda Jonker from the Netherlands has done her Bachelor Biotechnology in Leeuwarden. After working in different companies for some time she is currently doing her MSc thesis in Biology with the specialization Organismal Adaptation and Developmen. She will do a minor and major MSc thesis with Klaas Bouwmeester and me on the composition of the phyllobiome of Brassica nigra and interactions with butterfly eggs and egg-killing responses. She will also write a short review on what is know on the phyllobiome and interactions with the environment. Exciting new project and nice to have you at BIS!

Sander Koene from the Netherlands did a capita selecta with Klaaas Bouwmeester and me on the phyllobiome of different Brassica nigra populations. He is planning to come back for his thesis after his internship in February/March 2021. Due to covid-19 we postponed it to then.

Dorette Peters from the Netherlands will do her MSc thesis with us on egg-killing plant defences induced by different Pieridae butterflies. She received a small scholarship of the Uyttenboogerd Stichting to conduct one month fieldwork in the French Pyrenees! Super exciting, Dorette!!! Due covid-19 we have postponed the start of her thesis to spring 2021.

Dr. Luis Paniagua successfully defended his thesis on 'The role of the bacterial community associated with Pieris brassicae in insect – plant interactions' at the FU Berlin on Oct 25th, 2019. He did great and we wish him a successful further career in science and/or academics!

Setareh Mohammadin (PhD) worked as a postdoc on the evolution of egg-killing necrosis from October 2017 to November 2018. She will become mother for the second time and will hopefully find a new postdoc position after her maternity leave. Thanks for being part of the team and good luck for the future!

Foteini Pashalidou (PhD) from Greece did her PhD with me and her two promoters Joop van Loon and Marcel Dicke at the Laboratory of Entomology (WUR). The title of her nice thesis on egg-mediated priming is: Getting prepared for future attack. She defended her PhD in September 2015 and has since April 2015 a postdoc position at the ETH Zurich with Consuelo de Moraes.

Xiuji (Cindy) Wang (MSc) from China received a stipend of the China Scholarship Council to conduct a visiting PhD scholarship with us from October 2017 to October 2018. She worked on different aspects of egg-killing necrosis supervised by Lotte. Goodbye Cindy and success with your PhD!

Gabriella Bukovinskine Kiss (MSc) worked with me as technician from September 2016 to September 2018. She now fully works for the Laboratory of Genetics (WUR) and therefore we still see her around. Thanks for all your help and a nice time, Gabriella!