Hello! I come from a small seaside town in South Africa called Jeffreys Bay. How did I wash up in Sweden you may ask? Well, I decided I loved surfing so much I would move to a place with no waves at all.
Jokes aside, I studied biodiversity and ecology at Stellenbosch University (near Cape Town for those unfamiliar with the dark continent) where I had my first serious encounter with the idea of evolution. I found viewing the biological world through the lens of evolution incredibly satisfying, as it explained and simplified so much that I had previously missed.
My MSc work in Stellenbosch focused on the colouration of the charismatic Lithops ‘stone’ plant genus, and how variation in plant colouration tracks that of their local rocks, presumably as an adaptation for camouflage. This work on colouration got me interested in how animal visual systems are adapted for extracting different kinds of information from their light environments.
Perhaps it was logical that I would end up doing my PhD at the Lund Vision Group, but I like to think my arrival here was a serendipitous one: I was naughtily scrolling my Twitter when I came across an advert for a PhD project that would have me investigate the enigmatic visual capabilities of the nocturnal sweat bee, Megalopta genalis, in the Panamanian jungle. Excited by the prospect of bee brains (not turquoise water and tropical beaches) I decided to buy my lottery ticket, and was ecstatic when I learned I’d won. Confusingly, my prize was a ticket to Copenhagen not Panama City, and the only thing South American that I have experienced thus far is Skånerost.
