Principal Investigator

Jun Ying (“Jun”) enjoys pondering the hidden rules that govern biodiversity through space and time, and even more so try to figure them out! He is also passionate about mobilising our understanding of ecological and evolutionary processes to inform the conservation and management of biodiversity and ecosystems in an increasingly human-dominated planet. He enjoys bouldering / rock climbing, botanizing, birding, and the occasional watercolour painting.

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Lab manager / safety lead

Melvyn is in charge of the operation and management of the lab and is the overall safety coordinator for the lab. Having worked since 1996 in microbiology and molecular biology, with deep experience as a lab safety coordinator, he ensures the smooth and safe operation of the lab and is gaining experience in next-generation sequencing techniques. His hobbies are growing vegetables and video editing.

Ph.D. student

Hanci is a graduate student at NUS. Her research interests are in how inter-species interactions shape the natural environment and how this can be applied to shape our natural environment in the future. She is now developing a diet database for Southeast Asian frugivorous hornbills and using machine learning algorithms to infer trait matching patterns between hornbills and their dietary plant species. In her spare time, she enjoys playing basketball, swimming, and designing scientific illustrations.

Ph.D. student

Felicia is a PhD student at the Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions, co-supervised with Prof. Koh Lian Pin. She is fascinated by the ecological processes that structure plant communities, and her current project looks at how plant interaction networks influence tropical forest dynamics. Her favorite plants are ferns, and she hopes to work with them some day. She enjoys playing video games when she is not working.

Ph.D. student

Hong Jhun is a PhD student under the Department of Biological Sciences at NUS. His previous research covers a range of topics including plant ecophysiology, inter-species interactions, and urban ecology. He is generally interested in the application of statistical and mathematical methods in answering biological questions. For his PhD research, he will be trying to understand and quantify the effects of defaunation on seed dispersal in Southeast Asian forests. His hobbies include board games, video games and puzzle hunts, among others.