Biography

 I obtained a classical education in Natural Science focusing on genetics and molecular biology (1st MSc) in my native city, Odesa, Ukraine. Afterward, I joined the research-oriented double degree MEME Erasmus Mundus Master program in Evolutionary biology, where I defended two MScs. The 2nd MSc I earned at Uppsala University (UU), Sweden, by studying the evolutionary transition from fins to limbs on the giant Devonian fish Hyneria. I approached digital palaeohistology techniques. The 3rd MSc I earned at the Ludwig-Maximillian University of Munich (LMU), Germany, by studying the smallest known frog's external and internal 3D anatomy.

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My doctoral project at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) in Stuttgart, Germany, was interdisciplinary and involved 3D anatomy, neuroethology, biomechanics, and soft robotics. I studied a unique intraspinal mechanosensing lumbosacral organ (LSO) in birds. The LSO is a potential sensor, apart from the vestibular organ in a head, that hypothetically contributes to robust and agile bird locomotion.

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