University of Groningen
Modelling species interactions in macroevolution and macroecology
Xu, Liang
DOI:
10.33612/diss.125954510
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Publication date: 2020
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Xu, L. (2020). Modelling species interactions in macroevolution and macroecology. University of Groningen. https://doi.org/10.33612/diss.125954510
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Acknowledgements
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124 Acknowledgements
I
n the Joint Congress on Evolutionary Biology 2 1 at Montpellier, I had a meetingwith Christine Parent on whether we can apply the trait evolution model Chapter on her empirical data. After the academic conversation, she asked me how I joined Prof. Rampal S. Etienne’s group. I recalled that I found a job vacancy posted by Rampal in September of 2 14. After a few back and forth emails, he gave me an assignment that took me one month to solve. Afterwards, he agreed to write a
proposal with me to apply a grant from the Chinese Scholar Council CSC . ery
impressive said Christine. Indeed, the memory imprints so hard that I extract it
from my head within a second. This is how I came here, having obtained the most precious five years.
I would like to give the first and foremost thank to my primary supervisor Ram-pal. I had struggle and doubt that whether it was the right time to pursue PhD degree in 2 1 when my daughter was just one year old. Additionally, I was major-ing in mathematics and had very little knowledge of evolution and ecology. Rampal erased my doubt. He said to me he used to be a physicist. Indeed, through my PhD period, I eventually realized that interdisciplinary knowledge is particularly impor-tant. Rampal is a good teacher that knows how to guide students to evolve towards distinct niches according to their features. Let a mathematician read biology books and let a biologist play with e uations. It sounds weird but it is effective in our group - the Theoretical Evolutionary Community Ecology group TECE . Through substantial reading, I learned evolutionary biology fast but also encountered prob-lems. Rampal is always patient and prepared to answer any uestions. His novel thinking and insight of the big picture of the project impress me. I figure this is the advantage he gained from the interactions of his interdisciplinary knowledge. A good habit paves the path to success. From the beginning of my PhD, Rampal asked me to write weekly progress reports. This is specially helpful to me for recording project progresses, collecting ideas and improving English writing. Till now, I still keep on writing reports and blogs. Besides academic aspects, Rampal provides a great help to his students in daily life such as helping find accommodations, giving suggestions on management of life and work. I deeply believe that what I learned from Rampal will accompany me and constantly benefit me in my life.
The second thank that I want to give is to my collaborators. Dr. Sander van
Doorn, also as my co-supervisor, is one of the smartest scientists I ever met. e
had a major collaboration in Chapter . Sander showed a thorough and systematic understanding of population genetics and adaptive speciation. I was very impressed that whenever I was thinking about a mathematical realization of a biological ues-tion he can integrate it to the existing models coherently. Sander is always willing to share his knowledge and thoughts. He is very patient to explain every detail of the mathematical formulation and the biological interpretations. Dr. Hanno Hilden-brandt is a master of programming. In my propositions, I mentioned that a higher priority in a computer cluster extends a theoretician age. Alternatively, possessing a fantastic programmer can even benefit more. Hanno translated my simulation
codes of whatever languages I used into C and greatly improved the parallel
computing efficiency. ithout him, it is very likely that I am still writing my third
tech-8
ni ues.
I thank the assessment committee of this thesis. Prof. Luke Harmon, thank you for your valuable comments. You have done a great theoretical work on incorpo-rating phylogenies into trait evolution, which inspired my work in Chapter . Prof. Folmer Bokma, it was very informative and pleasant to have chats with you when you had a visit in our group. Prof. Ido Pen, thank you for your evaluation. I had little chance to talk with you but I am impressed by your humor.
My life in Groningen would not be so precious without my dear colleagues in the TECE group. I remember every detail of the interactions with any of you. On the first day I joined our lab, warmhearted Richel showed me around the Linnaeusborg building and the library in Zernik campus where I had never paid a second visit to. It was raining that day. You asked me if I needed an umbrella but you didn’t care the rain. You are a programming genius. I always wonder who will win if there is a programming competition between Hanno and you. Cyrus, a postdoc from US, I used to think you were a Dutch and asked you to translate a dutch letter for me as you spoke fluent Dutch. Later on, you also showed talent in French, Italian and Spanish. Ok, the only thing I was pretty sure is that you are not Chinese. Thank you for reviewing my manuscript, particularly in improving my English writing. Also thank you for that when I hadn’t got used to coffee and felt a bit sleepy at noon you cared about me. I enjoyed our conversation at the pub after group meetings. Giovanni, who run to hug me at our very first meeting, I cannot stop smiling when writing here with your humor in my head. You are the other physicist in our lab and always tortured me with extremely complicated mathematical problems. I believe one day you will invent a time machine once your high dimensional math problems
are solved. Thank you for being with me on my th birthday. Speaking of this,
thank you, Pancho, as well. e have similar life trace, bringing family here for
pursuing PhD. ith you and Gio, we form the math freak club with one stochastic
meeting per year. I enjoyed a lot playing the board game - Evolution - at your department to 4 am. I particularly enjoyed more crushing you at Starcraft 2 when you went away from the keyboard for a cup of coffee. Josselin, you were often arguing with Gio which language, French or Italian, is more beautiful and asked me, who couldn’t even tell the difference in French and Italian, to judge. Your broad knowledge in mathematics and biology sets a good example to me. Thank you for reviewing my code. I hope we can meet from time to time like in that evening at Montpellier we drank beers. Leonel, you are more lean to an empiricist
but also know how to do sexy theoretical work SecSSE . hat impressed me most
is that you like to go into the nature. Thus, I can make up stories of how you fight with a chimpanzee while you just go for birding. Your brother, Leonardo, has an amazing talent in languages. I guess the corresponding gene mutates a
bit so that both of you have found your niches perfectly. aren, I am inspired by
you that you never give up making efforts towards your goal, doing researches in New Zealand as well as inviting me to parties. I really appreciate that although I missed a lot due to family reasons. Thijs, when I joined our lab you have already
moved to Germany. I am glad that you are back now. e have similar research
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126 Acknowledgements
biological interpretations and theoretical approaches that I have read several times. Thank you very much for translating the summary to Dutch. Alex, you came once a month from U for the monthly meeting. Chatting with you is always informative and helpful. Your rich knowledge of evolutionary biology often pointed at a new
direction for the application of my theoretical models. asper, you are calm and
confident. Your presentations were as clear as crystals that I enjoyed very much. Your leadership is amazing because you managed to organize the expedition to Borneo and have kept Pancho - the only mathematician - safe. I hope one day I can join your team. Adriana, although it is only a short time we worked in the same
office, you are like a big sister, strong and solid. ish you a good life in Germany.
Paul, we had back-to-back niches seats in the lab, indicating we have similar features. It is pleasant and relaxing to have chats with you during the pseudo-coffee breaks. Pedro, you cannot imagine how green I am with envy that you play drums on one hand and code on the other. I think this is how a good scientist should be. Enjoy the life and enjoy the work. Raphael, you occupied Paul’s niche after he emigrated. In addition, you even improved the niche by upgrading the desk I am glad to hear your greetings in three languages in the morning. And sometimes you dare challenge my first position presenting in the lab. You are lending hands to people at any time. I figure there is no NO in your dictionary. Your summary of all kinds of staff and students meetings is always clear and informative. I am happy to have you be my paranymph. Theo, the chance of at least two people in a lab of
2 members sharing the same birthday is 41 . It sounds uite high, right? But I
have never met anyone before until meeting you. ish you have a great time in U .
Joshua, you have absolutely chosen a good corner in the lab which is surrounded by two Chinese. Is this why you start asking me how to calculate the surface of an island when the sea level lifts up? It is pleasant to talk about the weather with you who is always positive although I have doubt about your judge given that you are from London. Lucas, you are a mobile database. You possess phylogenies and know where to apply theoretical models to answer research uestions. I am glad to meet you. Shu, finally, I have chance to disturb other colleagues in Chinese
by chatting with you. hen you just arrived here, you met problems in finding
accommodations. At last, you figured it out. I know it is a big change and challenge to move from China to here, in all aspects of life. But you are strong and optimistic. I hope you stay optimistic and enjoy the life in Groningen. Tianjian, although you are new to here, you are smart. I hope you can integrate into our lab soon. I cannot stop falling into the memory of the lab life but I have to make it short. I also thank the other members in the lab, more dynamic than PhDs, James, Anais, Timo, Luis, Moniek, Billie, Celia. Thank you for enriching our lab life. Hylke, as an exception, is much more fixed. I still remember we guarded the office together in the summer of 2 1 . Sebastian, you are so cool when playing guitar. Ask Pedro for help if you want to play music on one hand and code on the other. In addition, I thank all my colleagues in Sander’s group. I should have joined the meetings from the beginning. You are kind and friendly. Although my work is uite different from yours, your comments are helpful. This also applies to the big family of the Theoretical Research in Evolutionary Life Sciences TR S group. A special thank is
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given to Ingeborg. You helped me a lot in the first year of my PhD.
My Chinese community gave me a great support through the five years. Before I came to Groningen, I joined a chat group, the members in which were heading to the same university. This group formed a big Chinese community. Some of us were
living in the same building, Hoendiep 1, which is consisting of small studios.
Almost every weekend, we had a party or a gathering. Each person prepared one dish to constitute a meal. This was often hosted in Chengtao or Huala’s studio. Everyday after work, cycling back and having a short chat with Haigen, Yuzhen and
Mingming were the most relaxing moment. hat imprinted most in my head is
the spring festival in 2 1 . e prepared the dumplings together and watched the
festival show. Thank you my neighbors in Hoendiep, incheng, iaohong, Qi, Hao, Yehan, Beibei. In the summer of 2 1 , Hao introduced me to a basketball club. I had a great time there, crazily playing basketball three times a week. I may not be able to remember all their names but thank you deep in my heart. Besides, my Chinese neighbors in the institute provide a complimentary cover to me. Long, I
bumped into you first as you were working in the next door. e encouraged each
other by expressing how bad we were going along with the work. Unfortunately, you won because your bugs are Carbon-based creatures but mine is simulation-based. If failure doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger. You are alive happily and never give up. I met Fangying and Yuan in the GELIFES annual symposium in October 2 1 . I still remember in that evening when we cycled back I led to a wrong path. Fangying, thank you for being my paranimph. You are kind, reliable, optimistic and thoughtful. Chatting with you was always helpful. I should have
said more but my brain is occupied by your boyfriend’s noodles. e, I should have
known you earlier. Hence, my wife could learn more from you to feed my stomach. Our friendship will definitely last forever. Yuan, you are straightforward and lovely - a typical personality from our hometown. I guess that is why my daughter likes
you very much. ith Long, Fangying, we had pleasant parties many times. uan, I
met you one year later. You are a big fashion boy with all kinds of novel e uipment. This is specially important in doing science, exploring novel techni ues. Binrun, a crazy field researcher, I am impressed by your stories in the desert of Australia, in the forest in the north of China and in the jungle of Philippines. Also, I give my
thanks to enwen, iaoyan, Fei. I am so happy to meet you.
As an international family, our life would be very tough without my daughter’s international community - the kindergarten and the Groningse Schoolvereniging
GS . Thank all the families in my daughter’s class. A greeting, a nod and a
short conversation in the morning at the corner where the children change shoes cheered me up for the whole day. Specially, thank you Stephanie, Phillip, N a and
Ava. e encouraged each other when the kids were new to the class. Also, I
would like to give the special thanks to Yasemine, Firat, Armin, Dmitriy, Tatiana, eronika, Eseniia, Chamutal, Ifat, Iyar, Zohar, Chris, Luka and Sophie. Thank you for organizing activities and taking care of my family. From chatting with you, I learned different cultures and wisdom of different countries. This experience is of
immeasurable value apart from that of science in work. e had precious memories
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128 Acknowledgements
skiing at interberg. In particular, we could share one house, enjoying the happy
hours after kids went to bed. The happy Italy restaurant in the city center loaded our pleasant time, regardless of whether they put us in the black list or in the IP list.
I would like to give big thanks to Zhi ing and Shiyao. Zhi ing, we have known
each other since 2 4 in Beijing Normal University. e have similar hobbies, playing
basketball and computer games. You led me into the world of warcraft as well as the world of science in the Netherlands. You picked me up when I first arrived at Schiphol airport and accompanied me to Groningen. Thank you for all your support and encourage when I was in the valley of work and life. Best wishes to you and
Ting. Shiyao, we were classmates in high school in 2 1. Our contact recovered at
a gathering before you joined Booking. Thank you and your family, Lulu and Ella. You are so kind that always leaving a room for us when we come to Amsterdam.
e never felt lonely in the Netherlands with you two families.
The last but not least thank is given to my family, my relatives and my friends in China. Thank my parents, my parents in law, my brother and my relatives for
supporting my decision of pursuing PhD. Thank ei for giving me valuable advice
and host me in iamen. Thank Rui, Qiupin, Min, Chuan, Yang, Yun, Bin, Feiyue,
Yuanhao and Shu. hen I was in Chong ing, we had a great time. You also give us
support when we are in the Netherlands. Thank in and Liang for your accompany when I was in struggling. The most special thank is given to my wife and my daughter. It is your support, sacrifice and contribution that underpin me and hold me here. I deeply felt the power of an intact family being together.
hat built me as what I am is the people and environment around me. This acknowledgment is already too long but still too short to include all my grateful. I am sorry that there are names missing. But believe me, I am grateful to all of you that I know of.
