Curriculum vitae

Education

๐Ÿ 2025-2028: Postdoctoral Researcher, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden

๐ŸŽ“ 2020-2025: University of Tartu (Estonia), Zoology & Ecology, PhD
๐ŸŽ“ 2018-2020: Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (Brazil), Genetics, M.Sc.
๐ŸŽ“ 2010-2015: Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco (Brazil), Biological Sciences, B.Sc.


Courses & Workshops

๐Ÿ“ 2025: Computational Molecular Evolution, Hellenic Centre for Marine Research, Crete, Greece, Instructors: Alexandros Stamatakis, Ben Redelings, Bruce Rannalla, Mike May, Maria Anisimova, Ziheng Yang, Adam Leache.

๐Ÿ“ 2024: BayesTraits Workshop, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom, Instructor: Joanna Baker.

๐Ÿ“ 2023: Evolutionary Analysis of Morphology, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Okinawa, Japan, Instructors: Liam J. Revell, Luke J. Harmon, Michael E. Alfaro, Evan P. Economo, Anjali Goswami, Emma Sherratt, Peter Wainwright.

๐Ÿ“ 2022: RevBayes Workshop, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway, Instructors: Sebastian Hรถhna, Rachel C. M. Warnock.


Teaching

๐Ÿ“Š Data Analysis in Community Ecology (LTOM 01.002), University of Tartu, Lecturer in charge: Meelis Pรคrtel, Carlos P. Carmona.


Presentations

๐Ÿ“„ 2025: Congress of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB 2025), Barcelona, Spain, Poster: Co-evolutionary dynamics of dietary breadth and body size in moths.

๐Ÿ“„ 2025: EMBO Practical Course Computational Molecular Evolution, Crete, Greece, Poster: Evolutionary transitions in dietary breadth and their relationships with body size in geometrid moths.

๐Ÿ“„ 2022: XXII European Congress of Lepidopterology, Laulasmaa, Estonia. Poster: You do not need a scale to weigh a Geometridae moth: applying allometric relationships to predict dry body weight at maturation stage.


Selected publications

My full publication list is available here.

  • Foerster, S. ร. A. (2026). Biomechanical trade-offs and the evolutionary dynamics of weapon morphology: Phylogenetic comparative evidence from scorpion pincers. Evolution, qpag097. view

  • Foerster, S. ร. A., & Lira, A. F. A. (2026). Broad-Scale Climatic Gradients Drive Multiple Facets of Scorpion Beta Diversity in Northeastern Brazil. Journal of Biogeography, 53(6), e70271. view

  • Foerster, S. ร. A. (2026). Allometry and the Evolution of Sexual Size Dimorphism in Scorpions: Insights from Neotropical Species. In A. F. de A. Lira & E. Gonzรกlez-Santillรกn (Eds.), The Biology of Neotropical Scorpions: From Taxonomy and Genetics to Ecology and Ethnobiology (pp. 13โ€“30). Springer Nature Switzerland. view

  • Foerster, S. ร. A. (2025). Body size prediction in scorpions: A phylogenetic comparative examination of linear measurements of individual body parts. PeerJ, 13, e18621. view

  • Foerster, S. ร. A., Clarke, J. T., ร•unap, E., Teder, T., & Tammaru, T. (2024). A comparative study of body size evolution in moths: Evidence of correlated evolution with feeding and phenology-related traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 37(8), 891โ€“904. view

  • Foerster, S. ร. A., Javoiลก, J., Holm, S., & Tammaru, T. (2024). Predicting insect body masses based on linear measurements: A phylogenetic case study on geometrid moths. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 141(1), 71โ€“86. view

  • Lira, A. F. A., De Moura, G. J. B., & Foerster, S. ร. A. (2024). Scorpion assemblages in threatened Brazilian forests: The role of environmental factors in explaining betaโ€diversity patterns. Insect Conservation and Diversity, 17(1), 128โ€“138. view

  • Ude, K., Foerster, S. ร. A., Fetnassi, N., & Tammaru, T. (2025). Forest clearโ€cuts support diverse moth fauna but lack common grassland species. Journal of Applied Ecology, 1365-2664.70063. view

  • Ude, K., ร•unap, E., Kaasik, A., Davis, R. B., Javoiลก, J., Nedumpally, V., Foerster, S. ร. A., & Tammaru, T. (2024). Evolution of wing shape in geometrid moths: Phylogenetic effects dominate over ecology. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 37(5), 526โ€“537. view

  • Lira, A. F. A., Foerster, S. ร. A., Albuquerque, C. M. R., & Moura, G. J. B. (2021). Contrasting patterns at interspecific and intraspecific levels in scorpion body size across a climatic gradient from rainforest to dryland vegetation. Zoology, 146, 125908. view