I grew up on the endless plain north of the Alps, more specifically in a region called ‘De Kempen’ in Flanders (Belgium). Since I was five years old, I left this plain for ten days a year to go on a yearly summer holiday in the Lechtal. It didn’t take me long to decide that I ones wanted to life in the beautiful Tyrolian Alps. In the summer of 2022 this came close to reality when I got the opportunity to work in a small mountain hut a couple of weeks, which I continued in 2023 and 2024. Another thing which was already clear when I was still a child is that I wanted to be a biologist. In June 2024 I graduated in a Master in Biology with specialization in Biodiversity conservation and restoration. Now, from January 2025 onwards, I can combine my two main interests (Mountains and Ecology) in a PhD here in Innsbruck!

My PhD is part of the EVESNAT project in which we will look at trade-offs between Ecosystem Services and biodiversity in Nature Based Solution scenarios in the Alps. This will help policy makers in the implementation of the Nature Restoration Law, thus assisting in biodiversity conservation and restoration in Europe, especially in the Alps. Besides my PhD, I am however also interested in more fundamental fields of alpine ecology like snowbed and treeline ecology and the alpine plant life in general.