Hi! Welcome to my website!
My name is Kasia ZiemiĆska and I am a functional plant anatomist interested in how wood anatomy determines plant functions and ecological strategies.
Currently, I am a postdoctoral researcher at Uppsala University, Sweden, working with Assoc. Prof. Bob Muscarella on intraspecific variation of wood anatomical structure in Puerto Rican trees.
Previously, I trained as wood anatomist at Kew Gardens (London, UK) in 2008. Afterwards, I did my PhD on anatomical drivers of wood density variation across a diverse group of Australian angiosperms (Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia, 2014). I worked on the anatomy of tropical woods from Ghana and Malaysia as part of the large project aiming at quantifying functional variation in tropical ecosystems (Oxford University, 2015/16). In 2016, I was awarded an independent postdoctoral Putnam Fellowship where I focused on wood water storage, capacitance and their anatomical underpinnings across a broad range of temperate angiosperms (Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, Boston USA, 2016-2018). Please see my CV for more details.
I am also interested in graphic design and my selected work can be viewed here.
You might wonder what the photo at the top of the page illustrates. It is a cross-section through a twig of prickly geebung, a shrub from Tasmania (Australia). The large white holes transport water, similar to pipes in a building. And the pink small cells give mechanical support, similar to bricks in a building.
Enjoy!
Kasia