I am currently a post-doc researcher in the ‘Ecological novelty’ group of Dr. Jonathan Jeschke at Freie Universität Berlin and IGB Berlin, funded by a Humboldt Stiftung post-doctoral fellowship. My post-doc projects focus on understanding how anthropogenically-induced processes in general, and urbanization in particular, influence the biogeography, evolutionary-ecology and conservation of biodiversity at a large-scale (geographically and taxonomically).
In my PhD research (supervised by Prof. Shai Meiri from Tel Aviv University and Prof. Panayiotis Pafilis from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) I took a large comparative field project on the Aegean Islands, Greece. I studied biogeographic patterns of the local fauna, and how island characteristics affect the evolution of morphological and ecological traits across the insular reptile fauna. For this, I combined field data from more than 60 islands and data I collected in several zoological museum collections (Munich, Bonn, Crete, Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv) and from the primary literature.
In my M.Sc. research (supervised by Prof. Shai Meiri and Prof. Pasquale Raia from University of Naples Federico II), I focused on identifying global patterns of turtle distribution, body size and life history traits, using macroecological tools.
I like collaborations, and am always happy to discuss such opportunities. I think nothing moves science forward better than idea exchange. If you are interested, please don’t hesitate to contact me here: yuvitescu@gmail.com.
Yuval Itescu 