Tom has started his position as a postdoctoral fellow at the NTNU in Trondheim. In this role, he will be taking over the coordinating responsibilities of the NordBorN network, allowing Mariana Verdonen to focus more on her research during the final months of her contract.
Tom completed his PhD at the University of Vienna, Austria, where his work focused on modelling biological invasions in the sub-Antarctic region. He assessed the risk that plant invasions pose for these isolated islands under climate change, and how their past and current shipping network links them to potential alien plants on the mainland. Prior to this, he worked in the Austrian Alps documenting the distribution of alien plant species along rivers and roads, as well as conducting ethnobotanical research on the famine food consumed during the Dutch famine of 1944-45. He is interested in polar and alpine flora, biological invasions, history, and species dynamics under climate change.