Damaris Zurell - Curriculum vitae

Contact - Education - Career - Projects - Awards - Professional activities - Memberships

I am a professor of Ecology and Macroecology at the University of Potsdam, with a deep interest in how biodiversity responds to environmental change. My work bridges theoretical ecology, conservation science, and predictive biodiversity modelling, often connecting basic research with real-world conservation challenges. I lead an interdisciplinary research group, coordinate international initiatives, and actively contribute to global scientific networks on biodiversity and climate change. Through collaborative, data-driven research, I aim to support evidence-based conservation in a rapidly changing world.

This is me

Contact details

Prof. Dr. Damaris Zurell

Ecology/Macroecology Group

Institute for Biochemistry and Biology | University of Potsdam

Am Neuen Palais 10 | D-14469 Potsdam | Germany

Office: Maulbeerallee 3 | D-14469 Potsdam | Room 0.12

Phone: +49 331 977 191002

Education

  • 2011 – PhD in Geoecology, University of Potsdam, Inst. of Earth and Environmental Sciences

  • 2007 – Diplom (M.Sc.) in Geoecology, University of Potsdam, Inst. of Geoecology

Academic career

  • since 2023 – Full professor of Ecology/Macroecology, University of Potsdam

  • 2020 - 2023 – Associate professor of Ecology/Macroecology (tenure track), University of Potsdam

  • 2018 - 2020 – Junior research group leader (DFG Emmy Noether programme), Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Geography Department

  • 2016 - 2018 – Scientific staff member, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Dept. Landscape Dynamics

  • 2014 - 2016 – Postdoc, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Dept. Landscape Dynamics

  • 2011 - 2014 – PostDoc, University of Potsdam, Inst. for Biochemistry and Biology

Projects
Projects as main applicant
  • 2025-2027 – sDiv workshop series. “sModelProBio - Modelling the way forward for protecting biodiversity during climate change”. Joint International Synthesis Call on Biodiversity and Climate
  • 2023-2026 – DFG Individual Project Grant. “DEBTs - Detecting and attributing biodiversity trends – a process-explicit modelling framework for identifying drivers of past and future population and community dynamics”.
  • 2023-2026 – DFG Individual Project Grant. “NichePac - Invaders on the move – niche and spread dynamics of introduced alien plants in the Pacific”.
  • 2019-2020 – DAAD Programmes for project-related personal exchange. “RangeDyna - Moving from pattern towards process for improved forecasts of species range dynamics”. Exchange with Univ. Melbourne, Australia.
  • 2018-2023 – DFG Emmy Noether junior research group, “BIOPIC – Disentangling the effects of demography, dispersal and biotic interactions in population and community response to global change”
  • 2016-2019 – SNF Ambizione Fellowship, “SCODA – Scaling from individual interactions to community dynamics in avian assemblages”
  • 2014-2016 – EU-FP7 Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (IEF), “MATES – Understanding and predicting multispecies assemblages and interactions in space and time”
  • 2014 – University of Potsdam Individual Postdoc Grant “Bridge Programme”
  • 2007-2010 – PhD Scholarship by the Potsdam Graduate School on Ecological Modelling UPGradE
Projects as co-applicant
  • 2024-2027 – HORIZON-CL6-2023-BIODIV-01. “ZOE - Zoonoses Emergence across Degraded and Restored Forest Ecosystems”. (Damaris is PI)
  • 2023-2026 – HORIZON-EUSPA-2021-SPACE. “BirdWatch - A Copernicus-based service for the improvement of habitat suitability of farmland birds via satellite-enabled monitoring, evaluation and optimisation of CAP greening measures”. (Damaris is PI)
  • 2022-2024 – ARC Discovery project (Univ. Melbourne). “Nature futures - Mapping pathways to prosperity for people and nature”. (Damaris is partner investigator)
  • 2022-2025 – Leibniz Collaborative Excellence (MfN / HU Berlin). “BeyondSpecies - Predicting biodiversity change by integrating genetic diversity into ecological niche models”. (Damaris is Co-PI)
  • 2020-2022 – Interdisciplinary project funded by Swiss Data Science Center SDSC, “COMECO - Combining machine learning, ecological modelling and plant morphological characteristics to develop a tool for identifying plants of Switzerland” (Damaris is co-PI)
  • 2018-2020 – Interdisciplinary project funded by Swiss Data Science Center SDSC, “SPEEDMIND - Improving species biodiversity analyses and citizen science feedback through mining data” (Damaris is co-PI)
Awards
  • 2024 – Henriette-Herz Scout, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
  • 2012 – Junior Scientist publication award by Leibniz-Kolleg Potsdam, Germany
  • 2008 – Junior Scientist Award by the Federal State of Brandenburg, Germany, Category Graduates
  • 2008 – Jacob-Jacobi Award (best degree of the academic year) by the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Potsdam, Germany
  • 2007 – Diplom/ Master Award by the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland (GfÖ)
Professional activities
Professional services
  • Co-speaker of the University Research Focus Area “Individual-based Global Change Ecology”, University of Potsdam
  • Co-lead ISIMIP sector on Terrestrial biodiversity (since 2025)
  • Co-lead GEO BON working group EcoCode for biodiversity modelling (since 2022)
  • Expert panel “Abiotic effects on biodiversity”, National Monitoring Centre Biodiversity, Germany (since 2021)
  • Deputy Editor-in-Chief Journal of Biogeography (2021-2023)
  • Subject/Associate journal editor: Ecography (2019-2022), Oikos (2018-2021), Diversity and Distributions (2016-2019)
  • Special issue editor: Philosophical Transactions B (2022-2023), Journal of Biogeography (2019)
  • Recommender for PCI Ecology (since 2018)
  • Commission member IUCN SSC Climate Change Specialist Group (since 2017)
Organisation of meetings
  • 2024 – Organisation of 4-day international workshop on biodiversity models intercomparison, Stolzenhagen, Germany
  • 2023 – Co-organisation of session workshop on “Spatial synergies in environmental monitoring”, German Environmental Monitoring Conference, Leipzig, Germany
  • 2023 – Co-organisation of 4-day international workshop on biodiversity models intercomparison, Quebec, Canada
  • 2023 – Co-organisation of symposium “Advances in biodiversity modelling from monitoring to mitigation” at GEO BON global conference, Montreal, Canada
  • 2018 – co-organisation of 3-day international workshop “Macroecology in the age of big data”, annual meeting of the GfÖ specialist group “Macroecology”, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
  • 2015 – co-organisation of 5-day international research workshop “Biotic interactions across space and time”, Akademie Waldschlösschen, Germany
  • 2011 – co-organisation of symposium “Towards rules of thumb for predictions of range dynamics” at annual conference of GfÖ, Oldenburg, Germany
  • 2009 – co-organisation of 3-day international workshop “Process-based modelling meets macroecological patterns”, joint annual meeting of the GfÖ specialist groups “Theory in Ecology” and “Macroecology”, Potsdam, Germany
  • 2008 – co-organisation of symposium “Macroecology and climate change – Past, present and future” during joint annual conference of European Ecological Federation (EURECO) and Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland (GfÖ) in Leipzig, Germany
Memberships

Ecological Society of Germany, Switzerland and Austria (GfÖ) International Biogeography Society (IBS)