Maria Cocurullo, PhD, University of Vienna, Austria
Dr Maria Cocurullo is a marine and evolutionary developmental biologist. She completed her PhD at the Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn in Naples, Italy, where she characterized the sensory and neurosecretory systems of sea urchin larvae, focusing on how environmental cues—particularly light and food—influence larval development. She developed a strong interest in chronobiology and joined the Tessmar-Raible group at the University of Vienna, Austria, as a postdoctoral researcher. Her current project investigates how lunar phases regulate brain plasticity in Platynereis dumerilii and how artificial light at night (ALAN) disrupts these processes in natural populations. To address these questions, she combines molecular, cellular, and ecological approaches, including single-cell RNA sequencing, in situ hybridization chain reaction, immunostaining, and field and laboratory sampling.
Kristin Tessmar-Raible, PhD, University of Vienna, Austria
Prof Tessmar-Raible leads the research group for chronobiology at the University of Vienna, where she spearheads scientific insights into the molecular and cellular mechanisms of specifically non-circadian rhythms and non-visual effects of light. Her work focuses on the marine bristle worm Platynereis dumerilii. This work serves as a major model system for moon-dependent rhythms and oscillators (circalunar clocks) and their interactions with daily (circadian clocks).
She is also a Helmholtz Distinguished Professor at the Alfred Wegener Institute of the Helmholtz Society and the University of Oldenburg, Germany, and has strong ties to the Stazione Zoologica, Naples with the aim to build further bridges between molecular biology and chronobiology-informed marine ecology on a range of organisms, from deep sea mussels and copepods to foraminifers.
The scientific value of her work is attested by multiple awards and grants which she has received since starting her research group in 2008, such as an HFSP research grant (2024), the Ignaz Lieben Prize of the Austrian Academy (2021), EMBO member (2021), European Research Council-CoG (2020), M. Schütze Memorial Award of the Columbia University, New York (2019), European Research Council-StG (2014), and the FENS Kavli Excellence Network (2014-2018). She recently also became an Ambassador for the European Research Council to help support basic research in Europe.
Mark Wong, PhD, University of Western Australia, Australia
Dr Mark Wong is an ecologist and entomologist whose research explores how insect communities function and change, often in overlooked ways. Intrigued by enigmatic diel rhythms in biodiversity, he recently demonstrated that insect activity is 31% higher at night than during the day globally (Wong & Didham, 2024: Nature Communications). His research has also revealed the worldwide spread of 525 alien ant species (Wong et al., 2023: Current Biology), estimated the total biomass of ants on Earth (Schultheiss et al., 2022: PNAS), advanced the study of insect traits and functional diversity (Wong et al., 2019: Biological Reviews), and uncovered the causes and consequences of biological invasions (Wong et al., 2020–2023: Proc B, Ecography, Oikos).
