team

Dr. Benedikt Schmidt | Senior Researcher

Research Interests

Conservation biology, conservation evidence, herpetology, demography, population dynamics, disease ecology (chytridiomycosis), environmental DNA, occupancy dynamics, mark-recapture models, monitoring, senescence

Official UZH page | ORCID | ResearcherID | Publons | Google Scholar 

Publication List @ZORA

 

CV

  • 2011-present, Independent Research Group Leader, University of Zurich
  • 2002-present, Scientific Collaborator at Koordinationsstelle für Amphibien- und Reptilienschutz in der Schweiz (www.karch.ch)
  • 2003-2011, Postdoc in the group of Prof. Uli Reyer, University of Zurich
  • 1999-2002, PhD in evolutionary biology (“Predator-induced phenotypic plasticity in larval newts”; supervisor: Josh Van Buskirk), University of Zurich, Switzerland
  • 1996-1999, Collaborator at the Amt für Raumplanung, Abteilung Natur und Landschaft, Kanton Basel-Landschaft
  • 1995-1995, MSc in population biology (“On the maintenance of the genetic polymorphism at the locus LDH-B in the pool frog, Rana lessonae“; supervisors: Hansjürg Hotz, Brad R. Anholt, Uli Reyer, Stephen C. Stearns)
  • 1988-1995, Studies in Biology, University of Basel, Switzerland

Triple congratulations to Dominik

Series of congratulations to Dominik on three wonderful achievements!

First and foremost, he managed to persuade a wonderful lady, Regula, to tie the knot. We wish them a long and happy life together. May they grow old on one pillow!

regula&dominik

Secondly, he successfully attracted third-party funding to support his PhD study on wild dog dispersal in Botswana, and started his PhD work. He is currently out and about, gps-collaring wild dogs together with Gabriele.

Last but not the least, he just received the Albert Heim Foundation’s 2016 Science Award, with his MSc work on the Swiss wolves. This award is given annually to outstanding work by young researchers in Swiss universities. The broad spectrum of research includes various disciplines around canines, including interdisciplinary issues such as the human-wolf relationships, which Dominik has nicely studies during his MSc. He sure will be a promising contender again with his new canine sp. in the upcoming years.

PopEcol Retreat 2016

popecol

This year, our group retreat was in Ticino. It involved ten group members, climbing up 1000m from Mergoscia to Cimetta, staying overnight at the top, and coming back down the next day. A great escape from “winter” in M̶o̶r̶d̶o̶r̶ Zurich. Thanks to Gabriele for organising the retreat and Chris for putting together this video summary:

 

New headquarters

office

We just got the keys to our new headquarters. Too clean and empty… let’s see how long it will take us to transform it from this hospital-like look to a ‘proper’ population ecology lab.

Arpat Ozgul | Head of Group

Research Interests

Population ecology, biodemography, life-history evolution, evolutionary demography, metapopulation dynamics, wildlife disease dynamics, quantitative methods in wildlife ecology, conservation biology.

 

Google Scholar | Official UZH page | ORCiD

 

CV

  • Since 2024, Professor of Population Ecology, University of Zurich
  • 2017–2024, Associate Professor of Population Ecology, University of Zurich
  • 2012–2017, Assistant Professor of Population Ecology, University of Zurich
  • 2011–2012, NERC Research Fellow, Imperial College London
  • 2010–2011, Postdoc, University of Cambridge / Darwin College Research Fellow
  • 2008–2010, Postdoc, Imperial College London
  • 2006–2008, Postdoc, University of Florida
  • 2001–2006, PhD in Wildlife Ecology & Conservation, University of Florida
  • 1999-2001, MSc in Environmental Sciences, Bosphorus University
  • 1994-1999, BA in Economics and Administrative Sciences, Bosphorus University