Dr. Negin Katal (they/them)

Academic background:

• Ph.D candidate since 04.2021
• M.Sc. Geo-Ecology / Landscape Ecology at Bayreuth University, Germany. Master Thesis: "Contribution of endemism to dark diversity on an environmental heterogeneous and taxonomically diverse oceanic island"
• B.Sc. Biology / Botany at University of Tehran, Iran. Bachelor Thesis: "Propagate Chenopodiaceae Family with tissue culture" 

Conferences and Workshops:

• "Leveraging Citizen Science and Machine Learning for Plant Phenology Monitoring", Talk, and co-chairing the "Collection-baseed Research in Plant Ecology" at 53rd GfÖ Annual Meeting, 2024, Freising, Germany.
• "Enhancing Plant Phenological Monitoring Through Automated Annotation of Opportunistic Observations", Poster at Biogeography and Macroecology Meeting 2024, Marburg, Germany.
• "Leveraging Citizen Science and Machine Learning for Plant Phenology Monitoring". Talk at EGU2024, Vienna, Austria. Abstract
• "Deep learning approach for revolutionizing phenology research: leveraging opportunistic data for ecological insights". Poster at 52nd GfÖ Annual Meeting 2023, Leipzig, Germany.
• „Application of Machine Learning in Plant Sciences“. Poster at Zürich-Basel Plant Science Center Summer School 2022
• „Observing Phenology using Flora Incognita Observations“. Poster at iDiv annual conference 2022 (online)
• „Opportunistic vs. targeted observations: Can unsystematic records from an AI-based plant identification app contribute to phenology monitoring? „. SFE², GfÖ, EEF joint meeting, International Conference on Ecological science 2022 „Ecology and Evolution: New perspectives and societal challenges“, Metz, France.
• Modelling Challenges for Mountain Ecosystem (MCME 2020) winter school, Hamburg, Germany.

Invited talks:

• „Opportunistic vs. targeted observations: Can unsystematic records from an AI-based plant identification app contribute to phenology monitoring?“. PhenObs Seminar Series 2023 (online)

Past Research:

• Cutts, V; Katal, N; Löwer, C; Algar, A.C.; Steinbauer, M. J.; Irl, S.D.H.; Beierkuhnlein, C; Field, R (2019). The effect of small-scale topography on patterns of endemism within islands.
https://doi.org/10.21425/F5FBG43737

Awards:

• Best poster award at 52nd GfÖ annual meeting 2023, Leipzig, Germany.
• Best poster award at iDiv annual conference 2022 (online). 
• Student Travel Award for the International Biogeography Society's ECBC Amsterdam, 2020.

Community services:

• Member of the International Society of Non-Binary Scientist (ISNBS)
• Elected as the Diversity, Equality and Inclusion officer of the institute.