NEWS
I'm thrilled to share that the European Research Council will fund my Starting Grant project, SIDEKICC (Symbiotic Interactions in Dynamic Environments: Key Insights from a marine Calcifier since the Cretaceous).
In this project I'll study one of the most successful partnerships on Earth: symbiosis. More specifically, the alliance between foraminifera (tiny marine plankton) and photosynthetic algae. The algae are the crucial sidekick, supplying their host with extra energy in nutrient-poor environments. It is a partnership that is also vital to corals and countless other organisms, and yet we still don't fully understand it: how it first arose, how many times it has been forged and lost over time, and whether it helped life survive past episodes of climatic stress.
For the next five years, I'll chase these questions with a team (a PhD student, a postdoc, and a technician) at the School of Ocean and Earth Science, @University of Southampton, supported by this ~€2 million ERC Starting Grant.
I look forward to starting the project in 2027. Watch this space!