I was born in Staufenberg, Germany, but we moved to the United States when I was quite young. We first came to the US as a result of Chernobyl; my parents were working in a lab and had access to a geiger counter and after the nuclear disaster they went outside and the grass in which my sister was playing was radioactive. My parents had never been to the United States but my mom and a friend took their kids to Santa Cruz California to sit out the radioactivity. They decided they liked it and soon after moved to the US for good, ending up in Mansfield, CT after a few years in California. I moved up to Montreal for school and ended up getting my PhD there too, studying monkeys and their ecology and behavior and then their diseases in Uganda and the Ivory Coast. That work took me back to Germany to work at the Robert Koch Institute for four years in their disease labs (BSL 3 labs and all), to look at the samples we collected from wild primates. While there I fell in love, got married and had a baby, bring things full circle.

My work right now focuses on disease evolution and ecology in wildlife communities and how this interacts with disease emergence processes: some pathogens I am currently working on include retroviruses, filoviruses, Treponema pallidum, and anthrax (all in wildlife systems). I am interested in understanding the impact of changing environments and social systems on pathogen evolution and epidemiology and ultimately aim to develop conservation applications for research. In April 2017 I started a year long Postdoc at Columbia University working with Drs. Thomas Briese and Ian Lipkin at the Center for Infection and Immunity.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I would like to offer a couch once I have a permanent place to put one and the space for it. I would like to meet interesting people and help them on the road and be helped when I am on the road. Improve the state of the world with the little steps.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

While traveling in Central and South America I had the luck to be put up by all sorts of wonderful people who made the trip as good as it was. I think CS is an excellent tool to help link people and allow people to see the world and meet people in new locations.

Interests

Showing my child interesting places and nice people, nature, art, biking, hiking, moving, ecology, behavior, monkeys, biology, evolution, cooking, musika, eastern european cinema.

• arts
• books
• cooking
• coffee
• vegetarian
• drinking
• movies
• traveling
• socializing
• drawing
• music
• folk music
• guitar
• violin
• outdoor activities
• cycling
• hiking
• biology
• ecology
• hitchhiking
• lakes
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Haruki Murakami, Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Robbins, John Steinbeck, Neal Stephenson, Milan Kundera, Gabriel García Márquez, John Crowley and many more

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Traveling and working in Panama, Argentina, Bolivia and then working in Mexico for a while. Then some time in Uganda and Ivory Coast working with amazing monkeys and apes and people. I also got to teach in Madagascar for 3 months. So many amazing things seen, so many good people met.

Teach, Learn, Share

Building and repairing bikes, biology, welding.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Interesting stories, good conversation, cook you a vegetarian meal.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Austria, Belize, Bolivia, Czech Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, El Salvador, France, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy, Madagascar, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Uganda

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Costa Rica, Germany, Panama, United States