Artwork by  Maria Sibylla Merian

Welcome! My name is Irina and I am a scientist fascinated by biodiversity. My main interest is understanding how ecological and evolutionary processes affect the structure of biological communities. More specifically, I want to understand how species interactions and the evolution caused by those interactions shape biodiversity. For that, I combine empirical and theoretical approaches, such as mathematical models, and tools from network theory. 

I am currently a PhD student at Yeakel's lab at University of California. Previously, I was a Master student at Guimarães' lab at University of São Paulo.