I am an evolutionary ecologist with a strong interest in the ecology and evolution of plant-pathogen and plant-herbivore interactions. I graduated at the University of Groningen in 1991 on an ecological-genetic analysis of phenotypic variation in life-history traits in Lychnis flos-cuculi. During a one-year post-doc period in the lab of Prof. J. Antonovics (USA) I studied aspects of the maintenance of disease-resistance polymorphisms using both theoretical models and field experiments. From 1991 to 2005 I worked at the Department of Plant Population Biology, the last three years as Head of Department. In 2005 I moved to the Department of Multitrophic interactions, now renamed to Terrestrial Ecology. My research interests include the evolution of plant defenses in a multitrophic context, effects of plant chemical defense on natural enemies of herbivores, induced cross-resistance between plant pathogens and mutualists (mycorrhizae) to insect herbivores and vice versa, evolutionary ecology of nursery pollination systems, and ecological and evolutionary consequences of altered biotic interactions during plant invasions.