August 2026: New paper “No genome-wide correlations and little shared genetic architecture between reproductive life-history traits and estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer risk” published in Molecular Biology & Evolution. Check it out here.
July 2026: We (Yagmur & Gaurav, and Shikhara Bhat from U Mainz) organised “Dynamics and persistence of internal evolutionary conflicts” mini-symposium at the MMEE Conference in Cork, Ireland.
June 2026: Yagmur gave a talk at the Evolutionary Demography Conference, which she also helped organise as the secretary of the society. Great to hear about all the cool science with the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains!
June 2026: Thijs, Doeke, Niels, and Raymon finished their BSc projects! Thijs and Doeke worked on island body size changes & cancer, Niels and Raymon studied cultural evolution in changing social networks.
June 2026: Our (Yagmur, Margaux Bieuville & Luisa Jaimes Nino) special issue “Ageing outside of the box: insights from unusual and non-model species” in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology is now accepting papers! See here for more details.
April 2026: Mehmet Somel (from METU, Turkey) was visiting our lab, and gave a talk on how they use ancient DNA to infer insights about early agricultural communities. After this very exciting talk in our GELIFES Seminar Series, he joined us for a dinner in town for further discussions!
April 2026: Gaurav is visiting Groningen for a few weeks!
Jan 2026: We kicked off our Ecology and Evolution Journal Club (EcoEvoJC)!
2025
November 2025: Yagmur gave a talk on the evolution of ageing at the REACT ENLIGHT public outreach event.
September 2025: New paper “Shrinking to bird size with dinosaur-level cancer defences: Evolution of cancer suppression over macroevolutionary time” published in PLOS Computational Biology. Check it out here.
September 2025: Talk in the REACT ENLIGHT online seminar series.
August 2025: We (Yagmur & Margaux Bieuville from U Mainz) organised the symposium “Ageing outside of the box: insights from unusual and non‑model species” & Yagmur also gave a talk at a cancer symposium at the ESEB Conference in Barcelona.
July 2025: Yagmur joined the GELIFES Seminar Committee.
July 2025: Arturo & Flora finished their (MSc and BSc, respectively) projects on cultural evolution!
July 2025: Yagmur has completed UTQ & PhD Supervision Excellence certificates at the University of Groningen.
May 2025: Visit to Xiang-Yi Li and her lab at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Very fun & stimulating week!
Jan 2025: Yagmur has become a member of the scientific committee of the Mathematical Models in Ecology & Evolution Conference.
2024
November 2024: Yagmur is a collaborator on the REACT ENLIGHT thematic network grant that just got funded! This grant aims to bring together an international & interdisciplinary network of scientists who study ageing. More details here.
November 2024: Yagmur joined the Programme Committee of BSc Biology at the University of Groningen. Looking forward to having a more active role in teaching organisation!
October 2024: Gaurav is in Groningen for a short visit during which Yagmur & Gaurav also attended the Internal Conflicts STN Workshop in Groningen, which was full of interesting topics, questions, and ideas!
July 2024: We (Yagmur & Piret Avila from U Helsinki) organised the mini-symposium “Expanding theoretical perspectives on senescence” at the MMEE Conference in Vienna.
July 2024: Talk on intergenerational ageing at the Evolutionary Demography Society Conference in Mexico City. It was a great experience to meet with local evolutionary demographers!
May 2024: Yagmur talked about cancer ecology & evolution at the Pint of Science 2024 Groningen outreach event.
March 2024: Yagmur started as a new PI in Groningen!
Rejection list
When we put our CVs and academic websites together, it hides the fact that for each item of success, we also have many “less-happy” outcomes. I find it important to document some failures as well, to give a healthier impression of what academic life is actually like. Here is a (definitely not complete; e.g. I lost track of paper rejections) list.
2026:
- NWO-XS grant rejection.
- Young Academy Groningen (YAG) application rejection.
2025:
- NWO-Veni grant rejection.
2023:
- Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation grant rejection.
- Ella and Georg Ehrnrooth Foundation grant rejection.
- Marie Skłodowska‑Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship rejection.
- Sakari Alhopuron Foundation grant rejection.
2022:
- Kone Foundation grant rejection.
2016:
- Discontinued my first PhD position (although I do not think this was a “fail”).
2013:
- Many grad school application rejections.