Ildikó defended her PhD in December 2022 at Eötvös Loránd University (in Budapest, Hungary). She has long been interested in studying the impact of climate change on vegetation on various timescales. As a MSc student at the University of Bergen, she looked into changes in the elevation of alpine tree- and timberlines during the Holocene period, using palaeoecological methods. During her PhD years she focused on the effects of drought and disturbance on native and non-native, invasive species in semi-arid grasslands in Hungary, and used data from field experiments and long-term observations. In her new job, she will investigate desertification tipping points in socio-ecological systems in Namibia, as a member of the NamTip  project team.

Jannis finished his Master’s degree in Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution at Freie Universität Berlin last year and will now start his PhD in the Fluvial Anthroposphere project, within which he will explore functional vegetation dynamics in regard to water level changes in the Lower Havel River region. For this, he will integrate contemporary vegetation surveys with historical data from the last decades and use pollen records to reconstruct vegetation dynamics of pre-industrial times in a palaeoecological approach. For this, Ildikó will be on hand with help and advice as his tutor.