Evolutionary biology of ageing

Current PhD and postdoc projects

PhD students

• Marianthi Tangili (expected completion: 2024)
• Merlijn Driessen: Mosaic ageing: Immunosenescence in an ecologically relevant ageing model (co-supervised with Ido Pen and Irene Tieleman; expected completion: 2021)
• Yoran Gerritsma: Developmental effects on personality and their neurobiological basis (co-supervised with Sietse de Boer; expected completion: 2021)

Postdocs

• Joanna Sudyka
• Christina Bauch: Telmere dynamics in Cory's shearwaters (co-supervised with Paulo Catry, ISPA, Lisbon, Portugal)
• Jaanis Lodjak: Physiological determinants of telomere dynamics
• Justin Eastwood: Immune defense, disease and damage control in the wild (Primary supervisor Anne Peters, Monash University, Melbourne)

Former PhD students under my (co-)supervision

• Blanca Jimeno: Corticosterone as mediator of environmental stress effects on sociality and ageing (Co-supervised with Michaela Hau; completion: 2018)

  Rolf Storms : Preventing bird strikes: Developing RoboFalcons to deter bird flocks (Primary supervisor Charlotte Hemelrijk; completion 2023)

  Els Atema: Evolutionary ecology of telomere dynamics in wild bird populations (Co-supervised with Arie van Noordwijk; (2015)

• Michael Briga: Growing up & growing old (2015) (G-Scholar)
• Jelle J Boonekamp (2014): Telomeres and life histories - All’s well that ends well?
• Mirre Simons (2013): Sexual coloration and aging (Cum laude; with Ton Groothuis)
• Gert Stulp (2013): Sex, Stature and Status - Natural selection on height in contemporary human populations (Cum laude; with Bram Buunk)
• Karen Krijgsveld (2012): Behavioural and physiological adaptations of precocial shorebird chicks for growth in the Arctic (with Bob Ricklefs)
• Sandra Bouwhuis (2011): Great tits growing old; Patterns and processes of ageing in a wild bird population (with Ben Sheldon; co-supervisors: Marcel Visser & Ton Groothuis)
• H. Martijn Salomons (2009): Fighting for fitness; Reproductive effort, oxidative stress and telomeres in a colonial corvid
• Martijn van de Pol (2006): State-dependent life-history strategies; A long-term study on Oystercatchers (Cum laude; co-supervisors: Rudi Drent, Joost Tinbergen & Franjo Weissing)
• Leo W. Bruinzeel (2004): Search, Settle, Reside & Resign; Territory acquisition in Oystercatchers (co-supervisors: Rudi Drent & Joost Tinbergen)
• Popko Wiersma (2003): Working for a living; Physiological and behavioural trade-offs in birds facing hard work (co-supervisors: Rudi Drent >& Joost Tinbergen)