Verena Schoepf

My Story

I grew up in the Tyrol region of Austria and spent much of my childhood hiking and skiing in the beautiful Austrian Alps. However, watching the fascinating underwater documentaries of the Austrian biologist and diving pioneer Hans Hass as a child kindled a deep passion for the marine environment and I decided to pursue a career as a marine biologist.

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After completing my masters research on the feeding ecology of a coral predator with Prof Martin Zuschin at the University of Innsbruck and the University of Vienna (Austria), I moved to the U.S. to study the impacts of climate change and ocean acidification on reef-building corals at The Ohio State University with Prof Andréa Grottoli. I was awarded my PhD in 2013.

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From 2013-2019, I was a Research Fellow in Prof Malcolm McCulloch‘s lab at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at the University of Western Australia in Perth. In 2017, I became one of the Program Leaders for Research Program 2 “Ecosystem Dynamics: Past, Present and Future” within the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.

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In November 2019, I started my position as Assistant Professor and MacGillavry Fellow at the Dept. of Freshwater and Marine Bioloy at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

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My research on tropical coral reefs has taken me to many fascinating places on this planet, including the Red Sea, the Caribbean, the Great Barrier Reef and the unique coral reefs of northwestern Australia.