About Vanessa

Download my full CV

Read ‚Profiles in Stoichiometry – Nine Questions for Vanessa Minden‘ in Volume 4 of Ratios Matter

Professional Experience

from 10/2021Professor (ZAP) at the Department of Biology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
from 02/2021PI at Department of Biology, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. Project: ‚Within-generational and transgenerational plasticity to nutrient stress in endangered, non-endangered and invasive plants‘
2020Position at research facility miDiagnostics in cooperation with Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre (imec), Leuven, Belgium
05/2017–11/2019Assistant Professor at the Landscape Ecology Group, University of Oldenburg, Germany     & Guest Researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
05/2016–05/2017Research Fellow at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Brussels, Belgium. Project: ‚Plant traits and species interactions along gradients of N:P:K stoichiometry‘
10/2011–04/2016Assistant Professor at the Landscape Ecology Group, University of Oldenburg, Germany
01/2011-08/2011Co-Coordinator of the Project COMTESS

Academic Training

2006–2010PhD at the University of Oldenburg, Germany Thesis title: Functional traits of salt marsh plants: responses of morphology- and elemental-based traits to environmental constraints, trait-trait relationships and effects on ecosystem properties (summa cum laude)
2005Diploma thesis at the University of Rostock, Germany Thesis title: The effects of the invasion of Hedychium gardnerianum Ker.-Gaw. (Zingiberaceae) on the regeneration dynamics of a montane rainforest on the Island of Hawai’i
2004University of Hawai’i, USA Research in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park (HAVO) with Dieter-Mueller Dombois (Univ. of Hawai’i at Manoa), Jim Jacobi (USGS) and Tim Tunison (HAVO)
1998–2005 University of Rostock, Germany Studies in Biology (Diplom). Major subject: Botany, minor subjects: Ecology, Plant Physiology, Philosophy