Hello there!
Welcome you to my home page. I appreciate you taking the time to visit! As the name of this website suggests, my name is Robin Heinen, and I am an ecologist working at the Technical University of Munich in the Terrestrial Ecology Research Group. This website displays some of my work – academic and otherwise. You can find more about my research under the ‘About me‘ section.
My ecological work finds itself in the area where plant, soil, and insect ecology overlap. In my experimental work, I mostly study how plants deal with their interaction partners, which can take the form of arthropods and other invertebrates, as well as various microbes above- and belowground. Much of my present work focuses on how plant chemistry may regulate these types of interactions. I’m also very interested in how external anthropogenic stressors affect interactions in these areas. The ecological impacts of light pollution on plant ecological interactions in particular are now becoming a more and more serious aspect of my work, and I hope to expand in this area in the future.
I’m also very interested in herpetology, albeit this is only a 30+ year hobby and not part of my professional scope (one day I need to write a snake paper though!). I love field herpetology (although I go out to do it way too little). I also keep and occasionally breed cornsnakes at home.
This space is also home to my blog. I really love writing, and especially throughout the Covid-19 pandemic I wrote blogs every day. I found pleasure and peace in the process, and it helped me keep the ‘writing muscle’ engaged! I wrote a scientific perspective on it with fellow science bloggers, which covers the ‘why’ in detail.
Blog disclaimer: Don’t expect any high-class literature here – the point of my blog is to write posts and generate stories and ideas regularly. Certainly on my blog I’m regularly wrong, and probably more often boring than not. I write about what bothers, triggers, or inspires me on any given day. No fixed subjects. Blog entries range from travel blogs, to the rollercoaster of parenting two toddlers, to experiences in navigating academia as an early-career researcher. I may sometimes be too honest for my own good, but I prefer my blog writing to be raw and open. Feel free to share your opinions or insights in the comments! Click the follow button down below to subscribe and read posts in your email.
Feel free to reach out to me any time – for scientific or writing collaborations, rants about mutual interests, job offers, or simply to say hi – via the ‘contact’ page. (Please do not contact me for ideas on how I can pay your AI business to make my website better. I am fine with my website as it is, thank you.)
All the best!
Robin Heinen
Robin Heinen 