ANNOUNCEMENTS

RECENT NEWS

• ◆ 23 Oct 2021: I gave an invited talk at the meeting of the VDA Arbeitskreises Lebendgebärende Aquarienfische entitled “De evolutie van superfetatie in de levendbarende visfamilie Poeciliidae” in Bocholt (Germany).
• ◆ 22 Oct 2021: Laura Staal successfully defended her PhD thesis today and was awarded a doctoral degree by the University of Groningen. Congratulations Dr. Staal!
• ◆ 23 Oct 2020 - 20 Oct 2021: During the last year, I did not regularly post about ongoing lab events. Still, several exciting achievements are worth mentioning in retrospect. Tiffany Ernst won the 1st poster presentation price at the international NWO Life 2021 conference for her talk “Pregnancy and the maternal brain: the impacts of reproductive strategy on cognition and neurogenesis in live-bearing fishes” (400 euro; 28 May 2021), Henri van Kruistum won 2nd place of the WIAS publication price for his recent publication in Molecular Biology and Evolution (250 euro; May 2021), and Andres Hagmayer successfully defended his PhD thesis “Benefits and drawbacks of the placenta in live-bearing fish” (26 February 2021). Congratulations to all three of you for your great work! Furthermore, in 2021 we published several papers: Andres Hagmayer published a paper in Freshwater Biology “Differences in ontogenetic and diurnal microhabitat selection by sympatric live-bearing fish species with different reproductive modes”; Andrew Furness published a paper in Journal of Evolutionary Biology “Female reproductive mode shapes allometric scaling of male traits in livebearing fishes (family Poeciliidae)”; Henri van Kruistum published a paper in Molecular Biology and Evolution “Parallel genomic changes drive the repeated evolution of placentas in live-bearing fish”; David Reznick published a paper in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution “Reproductive mode and conflict shape the evolution of male attributes and rate of speciation in the fish family Poeciliidae”; Diego Safian also published a paper in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution “The fish family poeciliidae as a model to study the evolution and diversification of regenerative capacity in vertebrates” and Andrew Furness published a paper in Current Biology “The evolution of the placenta in poeciliid fishes”. Finally, I was promoted to the position of Associate Professor at Wageningen University (1 March 2021). A pretty good year after all :)                                                                                                                                                                                        
• ◆ 23 Oct 2020 - Andres Hagmayer’s paper “Parasite infestation influences life-history but not boldness behavior in placental live-bearing fish” was accepted in Oecologia! 
• ◆ 27 Aug 2020 - Myrthe Dekker’s first paper “High degree of multiple paternity and reproductive skew in the highly fecund live-bearing fish Poecilia gillii (family Poeciliidae)” was accepted in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution!
• ◆ 25 Aug 2020 - Andrew Furness’ paper “Size-dependent male mating tactics and their morphological correlates in Poecilia gillii” was accepted in Biological Journal of the Linnean Society!
• ◆ 15 Jun 2020 - Article by James Dinneen in Hakai Magazine “Placentas may help fish outswim predators” about our Ecology Letters paper, with commentary by Brian Langerhans.
• ◆ 4 May 2020 - Mike Guernsey’s paper “Molecular signature of placentation and secretion uncovered in Poeciliopsis maternal follicles” was accepted in Molecular Biology & Evolution!
• ◆ 26 Mar 2020 - Press release issued by Wageningen University “Predation risk drives the evolution of the placenta” about our Ecology Letters paper.
• ◆ 20 Feb - 18 Mar 2020 - This year’s research expedition with Andres Hagmayer (PhD student) and Andrew Furness (post doc at Hull University, UK) in Costa Rica was a great success. We are very grateful for all the kind help from Rodolfo Quieros Flores (Estacion de Investigacion Las Cruces y Jardin Botanica Wilson) and Enrique Alonso Castro Fonseca (Organization for Tropical Studies, OTS).
• ◆ 14 Feb 2020 - Andres Hagmayer’s paper “Predation risk shapes the degree of placentation in natural populations of live-bearing fish” was accepted in Ecology Letters!
• ◆ 23 Dec 2019 - Henri van Kruistum’s paper “The genomes of the livebearing fish species Poeciliopsis retropinna and Poeciliopsis turrubarensis reflect differences in the evolution of their reproductive strategy” was accepted in Molecular Biology & Evolution!
• ◆ 15 Nov 2019 - A warm welcome to Tiffany Ernst who started her PhD project today on the evolution of maternal effects in livebearing fish, in collaboration with Dr. Aniko Korosi from the University of Amsterdam (the Netherlands).
• ◆ 24-26 Sept 2019 - I gave a talk at the 8th Conference of Poeciliid Biologists at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City (Mexico).
• ◆ 18 Sept 2019 - Elsa Quicazan successfully defended her PhD thesis today and was awarded a doctoral degree by Wageningen University. Congratulations Dr. Quicazan!
• ◆ 5 Sept 2019 - Diego Safian received a research grant from the Comisión Nacional de Investigación Cientifíca y Tecnología (CONICYT) Chile to study immunological aspects of the Poeciliid placenta in collaboration with Geert Wiegertjes (Aquaculture & Fisheries, Wageningen University).
• ◆ 26 July 2019 - Press release issued by the University of California Riverside “Ladies’ choice: What drives faster, flashier formation of new animal species”. 
• ◆ 16 July 2019 - I have a PhD position available on the ‘Evolution of maternal effects in livebearing fishes’. Application deadline is 15 September 2019. For more information see here.
• ◆ 15 July 2019 - Henri van Kruistum’s first paper “The genome of the live-bearing fish Heterandria formosa implicates a role of conserved vertebrate genes in the evolution of placental fish” was accepted in BMC Evolutionary Biology.
• ◆ 28 June 2019 - Andrew Furness’ paper “How conflict shapes evolution in Poeciliid fishes” was accepted in Nature Communications.
• ◆ 28-29 May 2019 - I gave a talk at Life2019, the first NWO life sciences congress, Bunnik, the Netherlands.
• ◆ 26-27 May 2019 - David Reznick visited my lab and organized a Masterclass with my PhD students and post docs. Thanks David for all the thought-provoking discussions!
• ◆ 7 Feb - 4 Mar 2019 - This year’s research expedition with Andres Hagmayer (PhD student in my lab) and Andrew Furness (post doc at Hull University, UK) in Costa Rica was a great success. We are sincerely grateful for all the help from Rebecca Cole and Enrique Alonso Castro Fonseca (Organization for Tropical Studies, OTS).
• ◆ 6 Feb 2019 - Andres Hagmayer, Myrthe Dekker and I attended a Masterclass by Prof. Tracy Bale organized by Dr. Korosi at the University of Amsterdam. Andres presented a talk about “Placental fish as a model system to study prenatal stress effects on offspring development”.
• ◆ 6 Feb 2019 - Elsa Quicazan’s paper “Coasting in live-bearing fish: the drag penalty of being pregnant” was published today in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.
• ◆ 5 Feb 2019 - Brief news item by Erika K. Carlson on Science magazine’s online news “Even for fish, it can be a drag to swim while pregnant” (5 February 2019).
• ◆ 12 Dec 2018 - Andres Hagmayer’s paper “Maternal size and body condition predict the amount of post-fertilization maternal provisioning in matrotrophic fish” was published today in Ecology and Evolution.
• ◆ 11 Dec 2018 - I gave a lecture about collaborations within our Integrative Animal Biology (IAB) Cluster at the WIAS End of the Year Event entitled “The role of rapid evolution in acquiring resilience of aquatic systems under biological invasions”.
• ◆ 13 Nov 2018 - Leo Nagelkerke presented the progress of our resilience project, funded by grant within the Strategic Investment Theme RESILIENCE, at the WUR Resilience Symposium.
• ◆ 10-15 Sep 2018 - Andrew Furness (postdoc at Hull University, United Kingdom) visited my lab to work on several publications together. Thanks Andrew for the pleasant visit!
• ◆ 19 Aug 2018 - Andres Hagmayer’s first paper “Maternal size and body condition predict the amount of post-fertilization maternal provisioning in matrotrophic fish” was accepted in Ecology & Evolution.
• ◆ 28 Apr 2018 - “Slanke zwangere dankzij placenta” News story in Bionieuws, a Dutch newsmagazine for Biologists.
• ◆ 16 Apr 2018 - Press release issued by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) “Het evolutionaire voordeel van een placenta ontrafeld: De placenta houdt je dun tijdens de zwangerschap”.
• ◆ 9 Apr 2018 - Mike Fleuren’s paper “Why do placentas evolve? Evidence of a morphological advantage during pregnancy in live-bearing fish” was accepted in PLoS ONE.
• ◆ 12 Mar - 2 Apr 2018 - This year’s research expedition with Andres Hagmayer (PhD student in my lab), Michael Guernsey (PhD student at Stanford University of Medicine, USA), Andrew Furness (post doc at Hull University, UK) and I in Costa Rica was another great success! We are sincerely grateful for all the help from Rebecca Cole (Las Cruces Biological Station) and Jimena Paut Brenes (Organization for Tropical Studies, OTS).
• ◆ 26 Feb - 3 Mar 2018 - Myrthe Dekker presented her PhD research at the workshop “Interplay between Parental Care and Sexual Selection” in Fiskebäckskil (Sweden).
• ◆ 14 Feb 2018 - Mike Fleuren’s paper “Three-dimensional analysis of the fast-start escape response of the least killifish, Heterandria formosa” was accepted in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
• ◆ 13-14 Feb 2018 - Andres Hagmayer and Mike Fleuren presented their research at the Netherlands Annual Ecology Meeting (NAEM).
• ◆ 1 Jan 2018 - A renewed welcome to Dr. Mike Fleuren who started a 1-year post doc project on the resilience of aquatic systems under biological invasions, in collaboration with Dr. Leo Nagelkerke from the Aquaculture & Fisheries group at Wageningen University. Also a warm welcome to Henri van Kruistum who started his PhD project today on the comparative genomics of placenta evolution in livebearing fish, in collaboration with Dr. Hendrik-Jan Megens from the Animal Breeding & Genomics group at Wageningen University.
• ◆ 19 Dec 2017 - Mike Fleuren successfully defended his PhD thesis and was awarded a doctoral degree by Wageningen University. Congratulations Dr. Fleuren!
• ◆ 1 Sep 2017 - We have a 1-year post doc position available on the resilience of aquatic systems under biological invasions. Application deadline is 2 October 2017. For more information see here.
• ◆ 30 Aug 2017 - We have a PhD position available on the ‘comparative genomics of placenta development in livebearing fish’. Application deadline is 25 September 2017’. For more information see here.
• ◆ 10 July 2017 - Hendrik-Jan Megens (Animal Breeding & Genomics group, Wageningen University) and I received a research grant to fund a PhD position on the comparative genomics of placentation in livebearing fishes (position to be advertised soon). 
• ◆ 9 May 2017 - Leo Nagelkerke and I received a research grant from Wageningen University within the Strategic Investment Theme RESILIENCE to hire a post-doc for 1 year on the topic “Resilience of aquatic systems under biological invasions: From ecosystems to genes”. (position to be announced soon)
• ◆ 4 Apr 2017 - Interview in the Volkskrant (a national newspaper) “Grotvis leerde in oogwenk van 20 duizend jaar in donker leven” and live interview on the radio show BNR Spitsuur with Petra Grijzen (BNR Nieuwsradio).
• ◆ 22 Feb - 18 Mar 2017 - The research expedition of Myrthe Dekker, Andres Hagmayer, Andrew Furness (UC Irvine) and I in Costa Rica was a great success. We collected very exiting field data and brought back 8 new fish species, which are all currently housed in my lab. We’re very grateful for all the help from Rebecca Cole (Las Cruces Biological Station), Minor Porras (Organization for Tropical Studies), Beatriz Naranjo Elizondo, Rita Vargaz and Ana Rosa Ramírez (Museo de Zoología, Escuela de Biología, Universidad de Costa Rica)!
• ◆ 16 Feb 2017 - Myrthe Dekker and Andres Hagmayer each received € 2500 from the Dutch Academy Ecology Fund (KNAW) to fund their field research project in Costa Rica.
• ◆ 16 Dec 2016 - Mike Fleuren is presenting his exiting PhD work at the 23rd Congress of Zoology in Antwerp (Belgium).
• ◆ 15 Dec 2016 - Leo Nagelkerke (Aquaculture & Fisheries group, Wageningen University) and I received a grant from Wageningen University & Research to organize a workshop “Resilience of aquatic systems under biological invasions: From ecosystems to genes” within the Strategic Investment Theme RESILIENCE.
• ◆ 1 Nov 2016 - A warm welcome to Andres Hagmaywer, a new PhD student who joined my Livebearing Fish group!
• ◆ 29 Sep 2016 - My paper “Consistent individual differences in seed disperser quality in a seed-eating fish” was accepted in Oecologia.
• ◆ 28 July 2016 - A PhD position is available to study the role of the placenta in transmitting disturbed serotonin levels from the maternal environment comparating livebearing fish, rats and humans. The PhD student will be based at the University of Groningen. For details see here (deadline 11 September 2016).
• ◆ 11 July 2016 - Kim Suijker received a three-month stipend from the “Lucie Timmermans Fonds” (Universiteitsfonds Wageningen) to work on the evolution of placental immunology in livebearing fishes in collaboration with Prof. dr. Geert Wiegertjes of the Cell Biology and Immunology group (Wageningen University).
• ◆ 17 June 2016 - Our paper on “Innate and acquired prey capturing skills in superprecocial livebearing fish” was accepted in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
• ◆ 15 May 2016 - I have a vacancy for a PhD student to study life history evolution in livebearing fish in Costa Rica. Apply here (deadline 6th July 2016).
• ◆ 2 May 2016 - Our grant proposal in the ‘Adaptive Life Programme’ of the Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences entitled “The role of the placenta in transmitting disturbed serotonin levels from the maternal environment: a comparative study with livebearing fish, rats and humans” was awarded! This is an exiting new collaboration with Prof. Bregje Wertheim, Dr. Jocelien Olivier (University of Groningen) and Dr. Torsten Plösch (Universitair Medische Centrum Groningen).  
• ◆ 1 Feb 2016 - A warm welcome to Myrthe Dekker, a new PhD student who joined my group!
• ◆ 6 Jan 2016 - I joined the Wageningen Young Academy.
• ◆ 28 Nov 2015 - Mike and I gave two talks at the meeting of the Dutch Livebearer Association (Poecilia Nederland).
• ◆ 11 Nov 2015 - Interview in Dagblad De Limburger “Vissen voor de wetenschap”.
• ◆ 22 Sept 2015 - I have a vacancy for a PhD student in Molecular Ecology / Sexual Selection to work on livebearing fish. Apply here (deadline 15th November 2015). 
• ◆ 1 Sep 2015 - I accepted a position as Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Biology at Wageningen University!
• ◆ 15-23 Jun 2015 - Press release by the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO) “Zoetwatervis blijkt belangrijke ‘natuurontwikkelaar’: zaden liften kilometers verder mee met vissen dan gedacht” (15 Jun 2015). Articles in national newspaper Trouw “Zoetwatervis brengt zaadjes veel verder dan we dachten” (18 Jun 2015). Article in Bionieuws “Vissen blijken verre zaadverspreiders” (20 Jun 2015). 
• ◆ 17 Jun 2015 - I gave an invited lecture at the Institute for Water and Wetland Research, Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
• ◆ 15 Jun 2015 - Advanced Online Publication of our paper in Functional Ecology: Van Leeuwen CHA, Beukeboom R, Nolet BA, Bakker ES & Pollux BJA (2015) Locomotion during digestion changes current estimates of seed dispersal by fish. doi:10.1111/1365-2435.12485  
• ◆ 4 Jun 2015 - Invited Spotlight seminar at the Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, the Netherlands.
• ◆ 23 May 2015 - Behind the scenes article “Dus u wilt verder in de wetenschap” by Martijn van Calmthout (de Volkskrant) about the 2014/2015 VIDI application round of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).
• ◆ 18 May 2015 - Press releases issued by NWO “Vidi-beurzen voor 87 talentvolle, ervaren onderzoekers” and Wageningen University “Zes Wageningse onderzoekers krijgen een Vidi”. Articles in national newspaper de Volkskrant “NWO geeft 70 miljoen aan creatieve wetenschappers” and de Gelderlander “Beurzen à 8 ton voor Wageningen Universiteit en Radboud”. 
• ◆ 14-16 May 2015 - Thanks to Dr. Julian Torres Dowdall and Prof. Axel Meyer (University of Konstanz, Germany) for inviting me for a visit to their lab and give a lecture in the Advanced Master Class “Evolutionary Molecular Ecology”.
• ◆ 14 May 2015 - Yay, I received a prestigious VIDI research grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).
• ◆ 19 Mar 2015 - Invited talk at the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), the Netherlands.
• ◆ 5 January 2015 - I was awarded the ASG-medewerkersprijs (500 euro) at Wageningen University for best publication of 2014.
• ◆ 1-5 December 2014 - Elsa Quicazan-Rubio is giving a video presentation about the methodology of her first paper at the IV Colombian Zoology Congress in Cartagena de Indias (Colombia). Click here for the presentation (in Spanish)!
• ◆ 9 October 2014 - Invited talk at the European Research Council in Brussels (Belgium).
• ◆ 11 September 2014 - Publication of Pollux, Meredith, Springer, Garland & Reznick (2014) The evolution of the placenta drives a shift in sexual selection in livebearing fish. Nature 513:233-236. [This paper was recommended by the Faculty of 1000 for F1000Prime for being of special significance to the field!]
• ◆ 9-11 September 2014 - Patricia de Lourdes Frías Álvarez (PhD student at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México, UNAM) visited the lab and gave a talk about her research on superfetation in Poeciliopsis.
• ◆ 8 September 2014 - “Placentation, Superfetation, and Coercive Copulation” Dispatch by David Haig in Current Biology.   
• ◆ 30 August 2014 - “Vrouw met placenta wil geen mooie man” News story in Bionieuws, a Dutch newsmagazine for Biologists.
• ◆ 12 July 2014 - “Placentas changed fish sexual politics” Article in New Scientist, with commentary by Ingo Schlupp.
• ◆ 9 July 2014 - Fantastic piece by Ed Young on National Geographic’s blog “Not exactly rocket science” entitled “Placenta Evolution and a Sexual Cold War” about our Nature paper, with commentary by Jeanne Zeh and David Haig.
• ◆ 9 July 2014 - Advanced Online Publication of our Nature paper: The evolution of the placenta drives a shift in sexual selection in livebearing fish.
• ◆ 4-9 July 2014 - Press releases issued by Nature “Placenta evolution increases fish promiscuity”, Wageningen University “Vrouwelijke vissen met placenta zijn promiscue” and University of California Riverside “Biologists link sexual selection and placenta formation”. 
• ◆ 20-24 June 2014 - I gave a talk at the Evolution meeting in Raleigh (USA).
• ◆ 14 February 2014 - Thanks to Nils Christian Stenseth, Asbjørn Vøllestad and Casper van Leeuwen of the Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Synthesis, University of Oslo (Norway) for inviting me to give a talk in their lab.
• ◆ 3-7 January 2014 - Elsa Quicazan and Mike Fleuren presented their first results at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Integrative & Comparative Biology (SICB), Austin, USA. Well done guys!
• ◆ 21-23 November 2013 - Thanks to Angelo Bisazza and Andrea Pilastro (University of Padova, Italy) for inviting me to give a talk in their groups and showing me how to assess sperm quality and perform artificial inseminations in poeciliid fish. 
• ◆ 20 March - 10 April 2013 - The trip of Andrew Furness and I to Costa Rica, funded by the Schure Beijerinck Popping fund (KNAW), was very successful!
• ◆ 1 March 2013 - A warm welcome to Mike Fleuren who started as the second PhD student in my lab!
• ◆ 14 November 2012 - I have a vacancy for a PhD student in Evolutionary Biomechanics interested in studying the evolution of reproductive strategies in livebearing fish (deadline for application is Friday 11th January 2013 at 17:00 hrs) 
• ◆ 15 June 2012 - The transfer of my livebearing Poecillid fish, from UC Riverside (USA) to my lab at Wageningen University (the Netherlands), was successful!
• ◆ 4 May 2012 - Yay, I got a Marie Curie - International Incoming Fellowship (IIF) (7th Framework Programme of the Research Executive Agency of the European Union)!
• ◆ 26 April 2012 - “Maaswater in beken verandert concurrentie tussen stekelbaarzen” Press release by the Bargerveen Foundation / Radboud University Nijmegen about our Aquatic Ecology paper on changes in niche segregation between three- and nine-spined stickleback (Verberk, van den Munckhof & Pollux, 2012).
• ◆ 12 March 2012 - I joined the Editorial Board of Freshwater Biology.
• ◆ 8 February 2012 - I received a field research grant from the Schure Beijerinck Popping Fund (KNAW) to study placentation in Poeciliopsis retropinna populations in Costa Rica, together with Andrew Furness (UC Riverside)!
• ◆ 1 December 2011 - My ALW Open Programme research grant (NWO), submitted in collaboration with Johan van Leeuwen (Wageningen University) and David Reznick (UC Riverside), was awarded! 
• ◆ 10 November 2011 - Publication of our review paper on seed dispersal by fish, with Prof. Mike Horn (Cal State Fullerton). (Horn et al., 2011; link to Special issue on Frugivory in Acta Oecologica).
• ◆ 7 October 2011 - A warm welcome to Elsa Magnolia Quicazan Rubio who started as a PhD student in my lab!
• ◆ September 2011 - Publication of our book chapter Pires, Banet, Pollux & Reznick (2011) Variation and evolution of reproductive strategies. In: J Evans, A Pilastro & I Schlupp (eds), Ecology and Evolution of Poeciliid Fishes. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. 28-37. ISBN-13: 978-0-226-22274-5. 
• ◆ 31 August 2011 - “Unterschätzte Fische” Interview in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Swiss newspaper) about our Acta Oecologica paper on seed dispersal by fish (Horn et al. 2011).
• ◆ 9 July 2011 - “Alleen vissenplacenta in goede tijden” News story in Bionieuws, a Dutch newsmagazine for Biologists (Bionieuws 12, page 4)
• ◆ 4 July 2011 - Interview on National public radio in the popular science program “Hoe? Zo!” (Radio 5: 8-9 pm; listen here to the interview in Dutch).
• ◆ 4 July 2011 - “Vissenplacenta is ongunstige overlevingsstragie” Press release by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) about our Functional Ecology paper on the (mal)adaptiveness of matrotrophy in livebearing fish (Pollux & Reznick, 2011).
• ◆ 1 July 2011 - Publication of Pollux & Reznick (2011). Matrotrophy limits a female’s ability to adaptively adjust offspring size and fecundity in fluctuating environments. Functional Ecology 25, 747-756.