Jitka Polechová - Curriculum Vitae

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Education

2005 Ph.D., Dep. of Zoology, Charles University, Prague: Competitive speciation: From clonal populations to genetic models
2001 MSc., Dep. of Ecology and Ethology, Charles University, Prague: Geometry of social relationships in the Wood mouse, Apodemus sylvaticus
1999 BSc., Biology, Charles University, Prague: Role of MHC in individual recognition

Academic and Research Appointments

since 2015 Postdoctoral research fellow at the Faculty of Mathematics, University of Vienna
2009 - 2014 Postdoctoral research fellow at the IST Austria
2007 - 2009 Postdoctoral research fellow at Biomathematics & Statistics Scotland, Edinburgh
2006 Research fellow at the Center for Theoretical Study, Prague
2005 - 2006     Postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Fundings and scholarships

2015 Evolutionary ecology of species' ranges (FWF), Elise Richter Programme
2004 Mobility Fund of Charles University, Prague
2001     Erasmus

Research Interests

I am interested in the evolution and maintenance of biodiversity. I have been using a variety of mathematical methods to develop theory of speciation and of adaptation to spatially and temporally variable environments, applied to dynamics of species’ ranges.
Most recently, I have pioneered theoretical work on limits to a species’ range driven by random genetic drift.

Teaching Experience

2011 Contemporary molecular-genetic approaches in zoology and conservation genetics, Brno
Evolutionary Genetics Summer School, IST Austria
2007 MSc. course in Population Genetics, University of Edinburgh
2004     HTML-CSS course for BSc. students of Environmental and Community Biology, University of Edinburgh
2009 - 2011 Supervision of Pavel Payne's Master thesis: Role of genetic variance in speciation, Charles University, Prague

Invited and contributed talks (selected)

8/2015 Congress of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB), Lausanne (Switzerland): Coevolution of genetic variance and species’ range in a changing environment.
7/2015 Congress of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE), Vienna (Austria): Limits to a species’ range in one- and two-dimensional habitats.
8/2013 Congress of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB), Lisbon (Portugal): When does genetic drift prevent expansion of a species’ range?
11/2010 Cambridge (UK), Newton Institute (invited): Special workshop: Evolutionary dynamics of structured populations. Adaptation in continuous populations with migration and genetic drift.
8/2003     Congress of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB), Leeds (UK): Speciation in asexual populations in sympatry and parapatry.

Other Experience

2010 Organizer of the Frontiers of speciation: Evolution of reproductive isolation: models and empirical evidence meeting, Prague (together with Radka Storchova
Referee for Ecology Letters, American Naturalist, Evolution, Heredity, Journal of Evolutionary Biology (reviewer board since 2011), Nature Communications, Journal of Theoretical Biology, Molecular Ecology, PLoS Computational Biology, PLoS ONE, European Physics Journal B, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Theoretical Population Biology, Trends in Ecology and Evolution; Grant reviewer for: NWO (Netherlands), Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.