SCIENCE TALK: THE STORY OF MAMMALS: FROM ANCIENT ORIGINS TO THE WILDLIFE OF THE UAE

Sebastian Kirchhof is an evolutionary biologist, taxonomist, ecologist, nature conservationist, working as Curator of Zoology at the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi (NHMAD). He earned his doctorate in biology from the Humboldt University of Berlin, doing research on diversity dynamics of African lizards under a changing climate at the Naturkundemuseum Berlin (Museum of Natural History). He worked as research associate at NYU Abu Dhabi where he focused on the genomic underpinnings of trait variations and evolutionary change in desert reptiles and tropical anurans. He used functional genomics in combination with ecophysiology experiments to answer questions regarding genomic functions at the level of genes, RNA transcripts and proteins under extreme environmental conditions such as ultra-aridity (i.e., in deserts) and high elevations. His work combines systematics, ecology and genomics for effective conservation planning, with a main goal to preserve the genetic variability of wildlife through collections and sequencing.