Where are they now!? - Paul Schmidt Yáñez

Hi again,


Now you've heard a bit about my time in Panamá, but what's become of me since then?
After the time I spent in Panamá I became quite interested in aquatic ecosystems, especially limnology and started working in Michael Monaghan's lab at the Institute for Freshwater Ecology and Fisheries Berlin (IGB).

One of the reasons why I wanted to work together with him was, that it allowed me spend time with some of my favorite little critters, the mayflies:

A fabulous little Epeorus sp. in the Pyrenees

Besides the frequent work at the IGB and the time at the university I tried to escape my everyday life as often as possible by travelling as much as possible, whether as a student assistant, a tutor for university courses, speciment collection for my thesis or simply vacations.

The time as a tutor at the university was really great. I got to be out in the sun, convey what I've learned to other students and live my dream of macro photography in between.
One of these excursions was together with Prof. Jana Petermann to the north east of Italy with the topic of alpine and freshwater ecology at the Tagliamento, one of Europes best preserved rivers.

Tagliamento River, north-eastern Italy

Students excursion to Italy on Alpine and Freshwater Ecology
(freshly moult Calopteryx virgo female on my arm)

But all good things go to an end at some point and so I finished my bachelor with my thesis on the "Morphological and genetic characterization of European Rhithrogena (Ephemeroptera: Heptageniidae)". I'm very grateful to Sereina Rutschmann for providing me with the opportunity to work in her project on the characterization of all Ephemeroptera of Europe.

Some months ago I started my Master in Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution in Göttingen, Germany and  so far I'm very happy here since it holds what it promises in the title and there are a lot of people around working with insects and tropics, two of my major points of interest which I want to pursue during my studies, whichever way it will take me.

I'm eager to know how it will turn out and where I will be at the end of it.

So long!

This is how the above Calopteryx virgo female will look a few hours later.