Sancia van der Meij

Sancia van der Meij is an Assistant Professor in Tropical Marine Evolutionary Ecology at the University of Groningen’s Faculty of Science and Engineering, affiliated with the Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences. Her research focuses on coral reef biodiversity, evolutionary biology, and symbiotic relationships between reef-associated taxa. She is also an editor for journals such as Marine Biology Research and WoRMS.

Her expertise spans coral reef ecology, adaptive divergence, and the evolutionary dynamics of symbiotic organisms. She has supervised PhD student H. Bravo Gouveia and led the AL-Xtra project on coral reef diversification. She was awarded the 2022 PhD Supervisor of the Year Award for her mentorship.

Key research interests include coral-dwelling fauna, symbiosis mechanisms, and the impacts of environmental changes on marine biodiversity. Her work integrates molecular techniques, phylogenetics, and field observations to understand species diversity and conservation challenges in coral reef ecosystems.