Santiago Jaume Schinkel

Research interests

Santiago Jaume Schinkel is an international Ph.D. candidate currently working on the systematics of moth flies (Diptera: Psychodidae) as part of the project ‘GBOL-III: Dark Taxa’ at the ZFMK, under the supervision of Dr. Ximo Mengual.

His research interests lay upon traditional and molecular taxonomy and systematics of Diptera, with emphasis on the families Calliphoridae, Hybotidae, and Psychodidae. He is particularly interested in the associations between humans and flies, and how flies perform and adapt to strongly entropized areas, combining taxonomical, DNA sequencing, and biological data.

For his dissertation for a Bachelors's in Biology, he worked with blow flies (Diptera: Calliphoridae) taxonomy and ecology, using a periurban forest to assess the diversity of blowflies. Then he proceeded to do a Masters, focusing on taxonomy and synanthropy of blow flies in three different ecosystems with different degrees of human intervention.

His participation in the project ‘GBOL-III: Dark Taxa’ focuses on traditional and molecular systematics on the family Psychodidae, the ultimate goal is to solve a problematic and long-discussed classification within the family.