People

Karin grew up near the coast in the Netherlands and has always been fascinated by marine life. She completed her undergraduate degree in Biology at Utrecht University in 2013, focusing on (marine) ecology. It was during her masters in Environmental Biology she pursued paleoecology and studying marine ecosystems over longer time scales.

She has worked on a variety of projects, from crustacean-ciliate symbioses in Dutch waters at the NIOZ, to dinoflagellate cysts and pollen in the Mediterranean sapropels at Utrecht University’s Marine Palynology group, as well as harmful algal blooms in the Caribbean.  Her first time in Australia was in 2015 during an internship studying genetic diversity and connectivity of Symbiodinium in high latitude reefs under the supervision of Dr. Eugenia Sampayo.

After finishing her Master’s, she moved back to Australia in mid-2017 to start her PhD in the Marine Palaeoecology Lab at the University of Queensland under the supervision of Professor John Pandolfi and co-supervisor Associate Professor Cynthia Riginos. Her project focuses on adding an extra dimension to the reconstruction of past coral reefs and their community structure through the recovery of ancient DNA from coral reef sediments along the East Australian coast.