Lauren Sumner-Rooney
Lauren is an evolutionary and sensory biologist interested in invertebrate visual systems. She completed her PhD at Queen’s University Belfast, studying molluscan photoreceptors under the supervision of Dr Julia Sigwart, before holding research fellowships at the Museum für Naturkunde and the University of Oxford.
She now works with three main systems, spiders, brittle stars, and chitons, to examine the function and evolution of many-eyed visual systems. Lauren took up an Emmy Noether Junior Group Leader position at the Museum für Naturkunde in October 2021, where she started the MultiplEye Lab.
Other roles
Associate Editor (2022- )
Organisms, Diversity and Evolution
Honorary Research Associate (2022- )
University of Oxford
Awards Officer (2021- )
Malacological Society of London
Associate Editor (2020- )
Frontiers in Evolutionary Developmental Biology
Previous lives
Research Fellow (2017-2021)
Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2016-2017)
Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin
Host: Prof. Carsten Lüter
Research assistant and science communicator (2015-2016)
Royal Veterinary College, London
Line manager: Prof. John Hutchinson
PhD student (2012-2015)
Queen’s University Belfast
Supervisor: Dr. Julia Sigwart
MultiplEye Lab 