My research focuses on two extreme ecosystems: the deep-sea manganese nodule fields in the Pacific Ocean and the shallow-water Antarctic. I am interested in the ecosystem functioning and the biodiversity patterns of benthic assemblages in the context of climate change and human impacts, such as the potential development of a deep-sea mining industry. I have knowledge of ecology, biodiversity, food-web ecology, genomics and (meta)barcoding. I am involved in academic capacity building in Cambodia and foster collaboration within East Asia. I am also an Advanced Belgian Scientific Diver (certified by BELSPO) with experience in both the North Sea and Antarctica.