My research interests include all aspects of insect chemical communication with a focus on the evolutionary and applied aspects of pheromone communication in moths.

My research interests include all aspects of insect chemical communication with a focus on the evolutionary and applied aspects of pheromone communication in moths. Ongoing research ranges from molecular biology of pheromone reception and pheromone biosynthesis to studies of insect behaviour in the field. I am involved in several projects aimed at biorational control of pest insects by a means of insect pheromones, one of the foremost alternatives to the use of conventional insecticides. 

Major ongoing research projects are:

• Evolutionary mechanisms of pheromonone divergence in moths and butterflies - pheromone-mediated assortative mating and speciation (supported by the Swedish Research Council, VR)
• The pheromone brewery - a yeast cell factory for sustainable semisynthetic production of insect pheromones (supported by Formas, Novo Nordisk, Carl Trygger Foundation, Swedish Foundation for Strategic Reserarch). Recently we also received grant from EU HORIZON 2020; read more about that at the Faculty of Science's website
• Pheromones for monitoring and control of insects in spruce seed orchards (supported by Formas and The Swedish Tree Breeding Association)
• Comparative studies of different heterologous systems for characterization of odorant receptors (supported by STINT)

Read more about our research projects on the project pages.

I am teaching various aspects of chemical communication on undergraduate courses in chemical ecology, evolutionary ecology, sensory biology, molecular ecology,  and and biotechnology.

I was head of the Department of Biology at Lund University 2010–2018, and I am fellow of The Royal Physiographic Society of Lund and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. I was appointed professor in Ecology at Lund University in 1998.