Olaf Rodrigues Pereira


Msc Student


I am a master's student in Environmental Sciences majoring in Ecology & Evolution here at ETH and I am currently in my last year. I am interested in general principles of ecological and evolutionary dynamics such as the evolutionary arm race between host and pathogens and adaptive behaviors in social communities (e.g. the emergence of cheaters in a microbial population).
As of April 2021, I am doing my master's thesis in Carolin's group under her supervision as well as Claudia Igler's (from Sebastian Bonhoeffer's group). There, I examine the influence of prophages on plasmid conjugation in a spatially structured environment; a follow-up of this dynamic has been previously studied in a mixed environment, where it was shown that prophages can substantially hamper plasmid transfer in E. coli. With the help of an agent-based model and experiments in the laboratory, I hope to deepen the understanding of these complex dynamics and lay some groundwork for future projects.