Aleksandra Krawczyk completed her first degree in General Biology with a specialization in zoology at the University of Wroclaw. In the course of her second degree in General Biology at the University of Amsterdam, she conducted a number of short studies in various fields, including developmental psychology, animal behavior, ecology, and parasitology.

 

The latter project, carried out at Wageningen University & Research (WUR), particularly aroused her interest. She brought it to the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in Bilthoven, where she obtained her first position as a junior researcher, gaining experience in molecular biology and working, among other things, on the dynamics of Bartonella communities in ectoparasites of bats.

 

Krawczyk continued as a Ph.D. student at the Laboratory of Entomology, WUR. She studied the ecology of tick-borne diseases, focusing on the tick microbiome and exploring the interactions between microbes, ticks, vertebrates, and the environment.

 

From September, Aleksandra will be a Foreign Postdoctoral Fellow in the Marco and Louise Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, working under the supervision of Dr. Hadas Hawlena on the influence of host heterogeneity on the evolvability and adaptability of pathogens.