The Difference between the Sexes - From Biology to Behaviour

Download Poster

Jan Engelstädter

ETH Zürich, Switzerland

Biography

Jan Engelstädter is an evolutionary biologist interested especially in the causes and consequences of sexual reproduction. He works mainly theoretically, developing mathematical models and computer simulations that aim at elucidating evolutionary processes. Jan was born in Berlin (Germany). He studied biology and mathematics at Humboldt University Berlin and graduated in 2003 with a Diploma thesis under the supervision of Peter Hammerstein. In 2004, he started his Ph.D. studies with Greg Hurst at University College London (UK), where he worked on the evolution of ‘reproductive parasites’ – symbionts of insects that manipulate the reproduction of their hosts in intricate ways, often killing or feminizing male hosts. In 2006, Jan was awarded a pre-doctoral fellowship by the Japanese Society of Science and worked for one month at Kyoto University in the group of Norio Yamamura. Following his Ph.D. studies, Jan stayed for five months as a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University. Here, he did research with David Haig on the evolution of X chromosome inactivation in mammals as well as on the evolutionary deterioration of Y chromosomes. Since 2007, Jan is a postdoctoral researcher in the Theoretical Biology group at ETH Zurich, led by Sebastian Bonhoeffer. Jan’s research focus is now mainly on the evolutionary origin and maintenance of sexual reproduction. He works on the Red Queen hypothesis (according to which host-parasite co-evolution produces selection for recombination) as well as on various other topics related to the evolution of sex.