Team

Isa Blasco Costa

Research leader

I am interested in parasites of wildlife, mainly in relation to aquatic systems. My research goals are to uncover the biodiversity of flatworms and understand the ultimate ecological and evolutionary processes that have led to this parasite biodiversity and host-parasite associations. This research generates fundamental knowledge at the intersection between parasite ecology and evolution. Since I arrived to the Natural History Museum of Geneva in Switzerland in 2014, I have also been actively involved in transmitting the value of science and parasites to society. Over the years, I had the chance to meet and work with great researchers and amazing people to whom I feel deeply indebted for all I learnt from them. I am a keen supporter of a culture of scientific exchange and work-life balance in academia.

Eloïse Rochat

PhD student

I am from Switzerland and France, I did a BSc in Organism and Population Biology at the University of Lyon 1 (in France) and an MSc in Biodiversity and Systematics at the University of Geneva (Switzerland). During my studies, I got very interested in fish metazoan parasites and conducted all of my research at the Natural History Museum of Geneva. My MSc thesis focused on the influence of the stream water source and trout migration rate on the parasite community of young non-migratory brown trout. After my master, I worked on a collaboration at the University Canberra, in Australia, where I examined the parasite community of several native freshwater fish. For my PhD, I am now working on the impacts of multiple stressors on fish-parasite interactions at The Arctic University of Norway under the supervision of Rune Knudsen (Arctic University of Norway), Isabel Blasco Costa (Natural History Museum of Geneva and Arctic University of Norway) and Rachel Paterson (Norwegian Institute for Nature Research).

Raphael Horvath

MSc student

I am from Switzerland, and have a BSc degree in Mathematics at the University of Geneva. I am now pursuing a Bi-disciplinary MSc in Biology. The goal of my MSc degree is to combine two scientific avenues enabling broader venture points when addressing scientific questions. My aim is to use my significant background and knowledge in mathematics (numerical analysis, probabilities & statistics, modelization) to biology related issues. I have always been interested in the ecology of wildlife and the interactions between animals and biotic or abiotic factors in the environment. With this in mind, I decided to work at the Natural History Museum of Geneva. My MSc thesis focuses on the spatial modelization of several snail’s species at multiple beaches of the Geneva Lake, with a focus on explaining the spatial distribution of trematodes infections, particularly in Radix species. This is an incredible opportunity for me to learn more about the parasites’ live cycles and the snails, as well as how this complex biodiversity coexists in our lake.

Charlotte Marconi

MSc student

I’m from Switzerland, where I obtained a BSc degree in biology from the University of Geneva in 2020. I’m currently a MSc student in Biodiversity and Systematics at the Natural History Museum of Geneva. I chose to continue my studies in parasitology because it allows me to combine all the scientific fields that I like. For my master thesis, the goal of my project is to study, with morphological and molecular data, the diversity, life cycles and distribution of trematodes of snails in selected Swiss lakes. At the same time, I would also like to raise awareness of parasitic organisms and their roles in ecosystems, in order to change the current negative perception of parasites.

Sigurd Slåteng

MSc student

I am from Norway, where I earned my BSc degree in biology from Nord University in 2020. During this time I became gradually more interested in parasitology and I ended up writing a thesis focusing on common marine parasites found in gadoids. I am currently doing a MSc degree at UiT – The Arctic University of Norway, where I am specialising in freshwater ecology with a focus on parasitism. For my master thesis, the goal is to obtain the complete gene expression profiles for two parasitic species of digeneans found in some of the local lakes. My interests include parasite induced alterations on host behaviour, life cycle adaptations and mechanics tied to population regulations, spread and distributions.