Biography

Leila completed a MS in Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the EPF in Lausanne, Switzerland. While studying fluid mechanics and hydraulics, she became truly interested in marine sciences. Therefore, she performed several internships in France, in the US and at the Scientific Centre of Monaco, where I obtained my Ph.D in coral-ecophysiology and ecology in 2016. Her dissertation focused on how climate change and anthropogenic stressors alter the nutritional exchanges within the coral-dinoflagellate symbiosis. Leila was with the Burkepile Lab at UC Santa Barbara from 2017-2020 as a postdoctoral researcher founded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).

Research Area

Leila's postdoc research was focused on understanding how anthropogenic forcing impacts trophic interactions, particularly those between reef fishes and corals, from community ecology down to microbial scales.