Antonin Machac
Employment
2022 - Present Leader of Research Group in Evolution and Biogeography
IMIC Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
2018 - 2021 Postdoctoral Fellow, Biodiversity Research Centre (BRC)
University of British Columbia, Canada (Mentor: Dr. Dolph Schluter)
2015 - 2017 Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate (CMEC)
University of Copenhagen & Natural History Museum, Denmark (Mentor: Dr. Carsten Rahbek)
2015 - 2022 Research Associate, Center for Theoretical Studies (CTS)
Charles University & Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic (Mentor: Dr. David Storch)
Education
2018 Ph.D. Ecology Charles University, Prague (Advisor: Dr. David Storch)
2014 Ph.D. Ecology & Evolution State University of New York, Stony Brook (Advisor: Dr. Catherine H. Graham)
2013 M.A. Evolutionary Biology State University of New York, Stony Brook (Advisor: Dr. John J. Wiens)
2011 M.S. Zoology University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic (Advisor: Dr. David Storch)
Research Experience
2023 Invited plenary speaker at the European Conference of Tropical Ecology (GTO 2023), CZ
Delivered a plenary talk concerned with "Why are tropics megadiverse?"
2020 SELDIG iDiv Working Group on Simulation diversity gradients, iDiv Leipzig, Germany
Meetings in Prague and online to study the processes that generate phylogenies
2020 Invited lecture within the Ornithological Series at the University of New Mexico, USA
The lecture introduced diversity dynamics in New World birds, delivered online
2019 MicMac Working Group on Brigding micro- and macroevolution, Vancouver, Canada
Week-long meeting on integrating evolution across scales, led by Dr. Jonathan Rolland
2018 Center-wide lecture at the Center for Theoretical Studies, Prague, Czech Republic
The lecture focused on the dynamics of species diversity across scales
2017 Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft (WSL) Zürich, Switzerland
Six-weeks of internship focused on the effects of scale in ecology and evolution
2017 Dept of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB), University of Arizona, Tucson
Informal dept. seminar on the evolution of diversity in birds and mammals
2016 Institut de Biologie de l'Ecole Normale Superieure (IBENS, CNRS), Paris, France
One-week visit focused on the methods in evolutionary research
2016 Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig, Germany
Invited center-wide seminar on "Diversity dynamics across scales"
2016 Biodiversity Research Center at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver
Five-week internship focused on the ecology and the genetics of diversification
2016 Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate (CMEC), Copenhagen, Denmark
Working group to study the evolution and maintenance of montane diversity
2015 National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS), Knoxville
Fully funded proposal for a working group on dispersal and distribution modeling
2014 Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Natal, Brazil
Two-week internship focused on linking phylogenetic, functional, and species diversity
2013 National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), Santa Barbara
Three-week training in ecoinformatics, programming, and statistics, fully funded
2012 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven
Invited informal seminar on the “Evolutionary analysis in biogeography”
2008 The New Guinea Binatang Research Center, Madang, Papua New Guinea
Five-week internship involving field work at a tropical research station
Awards
2019 Josef Hlavka Foundation Award (Excellent early-career researcher)
2014 Robert R. Sokal Award (Excellent graduate research in statistical biology)
2014 NSF Young Scientist Mentoring Program (Travel award for GRC 2014: "Unifying Ecology across Scales")
2011-2015 J. W. Fulbright Fellowship (Four-year scholarship sponsored by the Czech and the USA government)
Teaching, Reviewing, and Public Lectures
Evolutionary Analysis at Charles University and the University of South Bohemia, CZ (Lecturer)
Genomics of speciation and adaptation at Charles University, CZ (Assistant Lecturer)
Community Ecology and Macroecology at the University of Copenhagen, DK (Assistant Lecturer)
iDiv Summer School on Synthesizing and Modeling Biodiversity Data (Group Leader)
Applied Ecology and Conservation at SUNY Stony Brook, USA (Teaching Assistant)
Fundamentals of Scientific Inquiry at SUNY Stony Brook, USA (Teaching Assistant)
Landscape Ecology at SUNY, Stony Brook, USA (Teaching Assistant)
Vertebrate Zoology at SUNY, Stony Brook, USA (Teaching Assistant)
Statistics at the University of Economics, Prague, CZ (Teaching Assistant)
Referee for Nature, Ecology Letters, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Global Ecology and Biogeography, Nature Communications, New Phytologist, Systematic Biology, American Naturalist, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, Molecular Ecology, Evolution, Ecology, Biological Reviews, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Scientific Reports, Journal of Biogeography, Ecography, Bioinformatics, Plos Computational Biology, Journal of Plant Ecology, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, Journal of Tropical Ecology, Ecology and Evolution, Acta Oecologica, Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata
Grant reviewer for the French National Research Agency, Grant Agency of Charles University, Grant Agency of the University of South Bohemia, Lumina Quaeruntur Grants of the Czech Science Foundation
Member of the American Society of Naturalists (ASN), the International Biogeography Society (IBS), and the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE). Several public lectures in evolutionary biology, tropical ecology and the scientific method delivered at public high schools. The lectures were designed to encourage biological and scientific thinking in the young audience.
Quantitative Skills
General statistics ('R' environment, Statistica, SAS)
Multivariate analyses (Canoco, 'R')
Phylogenetic comparative methods in 'R'
Geographic information systems (ArcGIS, IDRISI)
Modeling in population ecology and conservation biology (RAMAS)
Basic phylogenetic inference (PAUP, Mesquite, MrBayes, BEAST)
Proficient programming in R, basics of C and VBA programming
Basics of version control (Git, RStudio), parallel programming and shell scripting at computer clusters
Employment
2022 - Present Leader of Research Group in Evolution and Biogeography
IMIC Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
2018 - 2021 Postdoctoral Fellow, Biodiversity Research Centre (BRC)
University of British Columbia, Canada (Mentor: Dr. Dolph Schluter)
2015 - 2017 Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate (CMEC)
University of Copenhagen & Natural History Museum, Denmark (Mentor: Dr. Carsten Rahbek)
2015 - 2022 Research Associate, Center for Theoretical Studies (CTS)
Charles University & Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic (Mentor: Dr. David Storch)
Education
2018 Ph.D. Ecology Charles University, Prague (Advisor: Dr. David Storch)
2014 Ph.D. Ecology & Evolution State University of New York, Stony Brook (Advisor: Dr. Catherine H. Graham)
2013 M.A. Evolutionary Biology State University of New York, Stony Brook (Advisor: Dr. John J. Wiens)
2011 M.S. Zoology University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic (Advisor: Dr. David Storch)
Research Experience
2023 Invited plenary speaker at the European Conference of Tropical Ecology (GTO 2023), CZ
Delivered a plenary talk concerned with "Why are tropics megadiverse?"
2020 SELDIG iDiv Working Group on Simulation diversity gradients, iDiv Leipzig, Germany
Meetings in Prague and online to study the processes that generate phylogenies
2020 Invited lecture within the Ornithological Series at the University of New Mexico, USA
The lecture introduced diversity dynamics in New World birds, delivered online
2019 MicMac Working Group on Brigding micro- and macroevolution, Vancouver, Canada
Week-long meeting on integrating evolution across scales, led by Dr. Jonathan Rolland
2018 Center-wide lecture at the Center for Theoretical Studies, Prague, Czech Republic
The lecture focused on the dynamics of species diversity across scales
2017 Eidg. Forschungsanstalt für Wald, Schnee und Landschaft (WSL) Zürich, Switzerland
Six-weeks of internship focused on the effects of scale in ecology and evolution
2017 Dept of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB), University of Arizona, Tucson
Informal dept. seminar on the evolution of diversity in birds and mammals
2016 Institut de Biologie de l'Ecole Normale Superieure (IBENS, CNRS), Paris, France
One-week visit focused on the methods in evolutionary research
2016 Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Leipzig, Germany
Invited center-wide seminar on "Diversity dynamics across scales"
2016 Biodiversity Research Center at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver
Five-week internship focused on the ecology and the genetics of diversification
2016 Center for Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate (CMEC), Copenhagen, Denmark
Working group to study the evolution and maintenance of montane diversity
2015 National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS), Knoxville
Fully funded proposal for a working group on dispersal and distribution modeling
2014 Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Natal, Brazil
Two-week internship focused on linking phylogenetic, functional, and species diversity
2013 National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS), Santa Barbara
Three-week training in ecoinformatics, programming, and statistics, fully funded
2012 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, New Haven
Invited informal seminar on the “Evolutionary analysis in biogeography”
2008 The New Guinea Binatang Research Center, Madang, Papua New Guinea
Five-week internship involving field work at a tropical research station
Awards
2019 Josef Hlavka Foundation Award (Excellent early-career researcher)
2014 Robert R. Sokal Award (Excellent graduate research in statistical biology)
2014 NSF Young Scientist Mentoring Program (Travel award for GRC 2014: "Unifying Ecology across Scales")
2011-2015 J. W. Fulbright Fellowship (Four-year scholarship sponsored by the Czech and the USA government)
Teaching, Reviewing, and Public Lectures
Evolutionary Analysis at Charles University and the University of South Bohemia, CZ (Lecturer)
Genomics of speciation and adaptation at Charles University, CZ (Assistant Lecturer)
Community Ecology and Macroecology at the University of Copenhagen, DK (Assistant Lecturer)
iDiv Summer School on Synthesizing and Modeling Biodiversity Data (Group Leader)
Applied Ecology and Conservation at SUNY Stony Brook, USA (Teaching Assistant)
Fundamentals of Scientific Inquiry at SUNY Stony Brook, USA (Teaching Assistant)
Landscape Ecology at SUNY, Stony Brook, USA (Teaching Assistant)
Vertebrate Zoology at SUNY, Stony Brook, USA (Teaching Assistant)
Statistics at the University of Economics, Prague, CZ (Teaching Assistant)
Referee for Nature, Ecology Letters, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Global Ecology and Biogeography, Nature Communications, New Phytologist, Systematic Biology, American Naturalist, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, Molecular Ecology, Evolution, Ecology, Biological Reviews, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Scientific Reports, Journal of Biogeography, Ecography, Bioinformatics, Plos Computational Biology, Journal of Plant Ecology, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, Journal of Tropical Ecology, Ecology and Evolution, Acta Oecologica, Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata
Grant reviewer for the French National Research Agency, Grant Agency of Charles University, Grant Agency of the University of South Bohemia, Lumina Quaeruntur Grants of the Czech Science Foundation
Member of the American Society of Naturalists (ASN), the International Biogeography Society (IBS), and the Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE). Several public lectures in evolutionary biology, tropical ecology and the scientific method delivered at public high schools. The lectures were designed to encourage biological and scientific thinking in the young audience.
Quantitative Skills
General statistics ('R' environment, Statistica, SAS)
Multivariate analyses (Canoco, 'R')
Phylogenetic comparative methods in 'R'
Geographic information systems (ArcGIS, IDRISI)
Modeling in population ecology and conservation biology (RAMAS)
Basic phylogenetic inference (PAUP, Mesquite, MrBayes, BEAST)
Proficient programming in R, basics of C and VBA programming
Basics of version control (Git, RStudio), parallel programming and shell scripting at computer clusters