I am interested in the processes that shape the world around us, particularly the biological diversity, and on developing theoretical models and methods to infer these processes from observational data. I am fascinated by biology, resulting in a broad range of collaborations on, for example, population consequences of bovine tuberculosis in African buffalo, aggregation behavior in fruit flies, the visual system in cichlids and its role in phenotypic plasticity, the evolutionary potential of spider mites to adapt to new host plants in the presence of sister species, the diversification of microbes in a chemostat, the interactions of annual plants with perennial potential nurse species in an arid landscape, and population genetics of whales.

Prof. dr. Rampal S. Etienne was first fascinated by the physical world around us, and asking philosophical questions. But he was also concerned with our treatment of the world around us. Armed with three MSc degrees (physics, philosophy of science and environmental science) and a year of experience as a lecturer in environmental modelling he started a PhD project at Wageningen University (with Hans Heesterbeek and Johan Grasman) on metapopalation management which he studied from a theoretical perspective, building mostly stochastic models of interconnected populations. Stochastic models allowed him to construct a statistically sound inference framework; he was attracted by likelihood-based methods such as maximum likelihood and Bayesian approaches, because they find solid foundations in probability theory, despite their shortcomings. After the PhD in 2002 he moved from metapopulations into metacommunities on postdoc positions at Wageningen University and the University of Groningen (with Han Olff), and became interested in speciation, macroevolution and diversification. He extensively studied the neutral theory of biodiversity. In 2007 he obtained a VIDI grant that allowed him to start a group as assistant professor at the University of Groningen in Theoretical and Evolutionary Community Ecology, dealing with understanding community diversity from a theoretical and evolutionary perspective. He was promoted to associate professor and full professor in 2012 and 2017 respectively. Etienne became fascinated by molecular phylogenies and how much (or how little) they inform us about the processes that shaped them over millions of years. In particular he studied the diversity dependence of diversification and the protracted nature of speciation. In 2014 he was awarded a VICI grant that provided an opportunity to start experimental and field studies, with spider mites, microbes and microsnails. Around the same time he moved into Island Biogeography and together with Luis Valente (Naturalis Biodiversity Center) and Ally Phillimore (University of Edinburgh) established the modelling framework DAISIE (Dynamical Assembly of Island biota through Speciation Immigration and Extinction) which allowed them to infer the rates of island community assembly from molecular phylogenies and knowledge of endemicity status. He also embraced the field of trait diversification and developed, together with Leonel Herrera-Alsina (University of Aberdeen), the modelling framework secsse (several examined and concealed state dependent speciation and extinction) that allows inference of the influence of traits on diversification. That marked also the beginning of a research line on trait evolution. In 2020 Etienne was awarded the Descartes-Huygens prize, particularly for his longstanding and successful collaboration with Bart Haegman (CNRS, France). Etienne is currently Scientific Director of the Groningen Institute of Evolutionary Life Sciences

BSc courses

• Evolutionary Processes: lectures and computer practicals on speciation and diversification
• Bachelor thesis: supervision
• First-year symposium: supervision

MSc courses

• Behavior Ecology and Evolution: lectures and computer practical on stochastic models in ecology and evolution
• Mathematics in the Life Sciences: lectures and computer practicals
• Biological Modelling and Model Analysis: lectures and computer practicals
• Current Themes: supervision. Topic that varies per year. Currently: models and empirical data
• Colloquium: supervision
• Master essay: supervision
• Research project: supervison

Outside of science I spend my time making music. I compose songs and sing and play guitar, bass or piano together with other amazing musicians. See Y on Soundcloud and Rampal Etienne on Soundcloud.