Henrik Hjarvard de Fine Licht

Current research

• Evolution and the molecular mechanisms behind pathogenic host specificity
• Disease emergence following pathogenic host shifts
• Parasitic control of host behavior

Short presentation

Link to personal homepage

Student projects

Please get in touch if you are interested in doing a (Bsc, Msc etc.) project with me. Projects will generally use a combination of techniques including: microscopy, in-situ hybridization of labeling colors, PCR and sequencing, gene expression analysis using real-time PCR, fungal microbiological laboratory techniques, Laboratory experimentation etc.

I have some ideas for projects, but alse welcome if prospective students have their own project ideas.

At the moment I am for example looking for students to work on on questions relating to how insect pathogenic fungi adapt to multiple or single host insects. But I also have project ideas using experimental evolution, molecular biology and bioinformatics techniques to uncover host-pathogen interactions and the role of host shifts in disease emergence.

CV

Positions

9/2015 -                Assistant Professor (current position), Section for Organismal Biology, Department of Plant and Environmental Science (PLEN), University of Copenhagen, Funded by a Villum Young Investigator Grant.

9/2013-8/2015     Postdoctoral researcher (current position), Section for Organismal Biology (Prof. Jørgen Eilenberg), Department of Plant and Environmental Science (PLEN), University of Copenhagen, Funded by an independent Carlsberg Foundation 2 year fellowship.

3-5/2013                Molecular Biologist, Molecular Diagnostic Unit, Copenhagen University Hospital, Roskilde.

1/2011-2/2013       Postdoctoral researcher, Centre for Genomic Ecology, Microbial Ecology (Prof. Anders Tunlid), Department of Biology, Lund University, Sweden. DFF | FNU Independent Danish Research Council 2 year fellowship. Including paternity leave, 4 months in 2012.

1-12/2010              Postdoctoral researcher, Centre for Social Evolution (Prof. Jacobus J. Boomsma), Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Education

6/2002                    B.Sc. in Biology, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

1/2006                    M.Sc. in Biology, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, Thesis title: "Symbiont transmission, specificity and its consequences in two species of fungus-growing termites". Supervised by Associate professor Duur K. Aanen.

12/2009                  Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark., Thesis title: "Substrate use and enzyme activity in fungus-growing ants".

                               Relevant courses taken since PhD:

1/2011                    Workshop on Comparative Genomics, Duration: two weeks (full-time), Cesky Krumlow, Chech Republic.

9-10/2011        PERL Programming, Duration: five weeks (full-time), Lund University, Sweden.

International experience

5/2011                    Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Switzerland, visiting researcher and field work.

2011-13                 Lund University, Sweden, post-doc.

8-12/2008              Department of Integrative Biology, University of Texas at Austin, USA. visiting researcher (Prof. Ulrich Mueller).

2006, 2007, 2008, 2010 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institue (STRI), Gamboa, Panama, Field work(total five months).

2004, 2005             University of Pretoria, South Africa, visiting researcher and field work (Total four months).

4-6/2004                BIOTEC National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Bangkok, Thailand, visiting researcher and field work.

6-12/2003              Eidgenössische Technische Hochshule (ETH) Zürich, Switzerland, visiting researcher (Prof. Paul Schmid-Hempel).

Grants and Awards

2017                       DFF | FNU Project 1, DKK 2.517.120 Received as funding that allow me to hire a phd to work on host-pathogen co-evolution.

2015                       NOVA Phd course grant, DKK 106.000 Funding to organize a one-week Phd course.

2014                       Villum Young Investigator grant, DKK 3.900.000 Three years funding and hiring of two year postdoc.

2013                       Carlsberg foundation research grant, DKK 60.000 To produce next generation sequence data.

2012                       Carlsberg foundation postdoctoral fellowship, DKK 1.109.642 Received as funding for post-doc. project at University of Copenhagen.

2012                       First prize, post-doc. poster award, DKK ~500 Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE) international conference in Dublin, Ireland

2011                       Royal Physiographic Society in Lund, DKK ~81.000 To purchase a computer cluster for data intensive bioinformatic analysis.

2011                       Danish Mycological Society research travel grant, DKK 4.000 Received as funding for fieldwork in Switzerland.

2010                       DFF | FNU Postdoctoral Fellowship, DKK 1.150.000 Received as funding for post. doc. project at Lund University.

2004                       WWF/Novozymes research travel grant, DKK 10.000

Teaching experience

Education:            Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (danish: Adjunktpædagogikum), (2014), at the Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen; Introduction to University Pedagogy (IUP) (2013), at the Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen.

M.Sc. courses:     Biological control of pests (2013), at Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen; Genomic approaches for non-model organisms (2012-2014), at the Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen.

B.Sc. courses:      Animal Life and Function (2014), at Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen; Animal and plant diversity (2014), at Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen; Terrestrial ecology (2011), at Department of Biology, Lund University; Population biology (2005-2006), at Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen; Entomology summer course (2005-2007), at Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen.

M.Sc. projects:     Benjamin Hanson Conlon (2014-); Jakob Spile (2014-); Oana Cheta (2014-); Pepijn Kooij (2007-2008).

Important collaborators

Referee activity