About Me
I am a computational ecologist by training and a data visualization designer by heart with more than 10 years of hypothesis-driven research experience and strong skills in data wrangling, statistical analysis, model development and data visualization.
I am working as a scientific researcher (PostDoc) in the Department “Ecological Dynamics” at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin, Germany. Since the beginning of 2020 I have also been working successfully as a self-employed designer, consultant and workshop instructor in the fields of data visualization and reproducible analysis. My favorite tool for all data-related tasks is R, an open source and highly extensible language for statistical computing and graphics techniques. To visualize data I mainly utilize the package {ggplot2} from the {tidyverse} package collection including many more that I use on a daily basis for all kinds of data preparation and analysis.
Computational Ecology
As a computational scientist, I apply analytic and mechanistic modeling approaches to answer questions related to the movement ecology of animals and the dynamics of populations, communities and diseases in space and time. By using empirical and simulated data, I investigate how disease dynamics are influenced by movement behavior, landscape structure and seasonality, how disturbances affect stability measures of ecological communities, and how birds respond to global change. In 2019, I was awarded a Ph.D. degree in Ecology (Dr. rer. nat.) at the University of Potsdam as part of the BioMove research training group.
→ Read my publications and more about my projects!
Data Visualization
My passion for data, design and coding is a perfect combination not only for scientific but all types of data visualization. By contributing to challenges such as TidyTuesday, MakeoverMonday, Storytelling with Data and the 30 Day Map Challenge, I am constantly strengthening my skills in design and reproducible data visualization with {ggplot2}. Thanks to frequent contributions as well as several personal and client projects,
my portfolio now includes visualizations for various purposes and is covering a wide range of topics and chart types.
→ Have a look at my portfolio!
Contact
Dr. rer. nat. Cédric Scherer
Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW)
Department “Ecological Dynamics”
Alfred-Kowalke-Straße 17, Room 2.4.05, 10315 Berlin, Germany
Phone: +49 30 5168 342 | Email: scherer@izw-berlin.de
→ Get a pdf copy of my resume!
Curriculum Vitae
- Personal Details
- Education & Professional Expericence
- Teaching
- Publications & Presentations
- Awards & Honors
- Skills
- Memberships & Services
Personal Details
- Day and Place of Birth: 27th of September 1986 in Berlin, Germany
- Family Status: married with 1 dependent daughter (5 months parental leave in 2017-2018)
Education & Professional Experience
- Data Visualization Designer (since 2020)
- Self-employed, Berlin, Germany
- Services: Reproducible data analysis and graphic design, cartography, statistical modeling, consulting, workshops (Tools: R, SQL, html, CSS)
- Scientific Researcher (PostDoc) (since 2019)
- Department of Ecological Dynamics, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), Berlin, Germany
- Topics:Movement ecology, population dynamics, disease ecology, coexistence theory
- Tasks: Data analysis, statistical and mechanistic modeling, spatial analysis, data visualization, cartography, software development, code management, lab support and supervision (Tools: R, QGIS, NetLogo)
- Ph.D. in Ecology (2015–2019)
- Department of Ecological Dynamics, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW), Berlin, Germany & RTG “BioMove”, University of Potsdam, Germany
- Topics: Movement ecology, disease ecology, population dynamics, coexistence theory
- Tasks: Mechanistic and analytical modeling, spatial analysis, data visualization, R package development (Tools: R, shiny, NetLogo, QGIS)
- Speaker SIG “Young Modellers in Ecology” (2015–2019)
- Young Modellers in Ecology (YoMos), Special Interest Group of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria & Switzerland (GfOe)
- Tasks: Lead of the organizational teams, conference chair, workshop instructor
- Visiting Research Student (2017)
- Getz Lab, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA
- Topics: Evolutionary biology, disease ecology, population dynamics, theoretical ecology
- Tasks: Developing genetic algorithms for agent-based models (Tool: Numerus modelling platform)
- Research Assistant (2015)
- Department of Plant Ecology and Nature Conservation, University of Potsdam, Germany within the DFG Priority Program “Infrastructure-Biodiversity-Exploratories”
- Tasks: Mechanistic modeling, literature research, proposal writing (Tools: R, Netlogo, C++)
- M.Sc. in Ecology, Evolution and Nature Conservation (2011–2014)
- University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
- Topics: Computational ecology, climate change biology, population dynamics, dryland ecology
- Tasks: Deterministic and stohastic modeling, data collection, data analysis (Tools: R, C++, MatLab, SPSS)
- Internship (2011)
- “AgroScapeLabs”, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Muencheberg, Germany
- Tasks: Catching, collaring and analysis of movement data of red foxes, raccoons and brown hares (Tools: R, QGIS)
- B.Sc. in Life Sciences (2008–2011)
- University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany
- Topics: Organismic biology, movement ecology, animal behavior
- Tasks: Data collection, processing, statistical modeling (Tools: R, MatLab, Excel)
Teaching
- Training “Data Visualisation Techniques for Data Scientists”
(Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), 2 days, remote, Feb 2021) - Workshop “Data Visualization with
{ggplot2}: Data Visualization Principles and Beautiful Plotting in R”
(NC3 Collaborative Research Centre, 2 days, remote, Nov 2020) - Workshop “Data Visualization in R with
{ggplot2}”
(Physalia Courses, 5 days, Berlin/remote, Mar and Nov 2020) - Workshop “Scientific Data Visualization: Principles & Good Practices”
(Leibniz Institute of Zoo and Wildlife Research, 1 day, Berlin, 2019) - Workshop “Introduction to Ecological Modelling”
(Department of Theoretical Ecology, 5 days, University of Potsdam, 2016) - Practical Workshop “Zoology”
(Department for Zoology, University of Potsdam, 2009–2014) - Workshop “Research & Presentation”
(Department for Didactics of Biology, University of Potsdam, 2013–2014) - Field workshop “Systematic Zoology II”
(Department for Evolutionary Biology and Systematic Zoology, University of Potsdam, 2013–2014)
Publications & Presentations
Awards & Honors
- Winner “Mapping Movements” Contest 2021 in the category "Pretty Map" plus Runner-Up in the category “R Maps” for the Cheetah map
- Honorable Mention RStudio Contest 2020, designing a static table
- Winner “CorrelAidX Challenge 2020”, designing an interactive Shiny app
- PostDoc Stipend, funded by the University of Potsdam (9 month full position)
- Best Poster, GRC “Movement Ecology of Animals”, Ventura, CA, USA (March 2017)
Skills
- Languages: German (native), English (fluent)
- Programming: R, NetLogo, CSS, html, SQL/SQLite, Python, C++
- Statistics: R (e.g. lm4, glmmTMB, CARBayesST, adehabitat, broom, tidytext, tidymodels), SPSS, Excel
- GIS: R (e.g. sf, stars, terra, raster, rgdal, rgeos, sp), QGIS, GRASS, ArcGIS
- Visualization: R (e.g. ggplot2, shiny, plotly, echarts4r, leaflet, tmap, gganimate, highcharter), DataWrapper, RAWgraphs, CartoDB
- Markup: Markdown, R (e.g. Rmarkdown, blogdown, bookdown, xaringan), LaTeX
Memberships & Services
- Peer Review: CRC Press, Journal of Animal Ecology, Oikos, BMC Ecology, Ecology and Evolution, Landscape Ecology, Ecological Modelling
- Functional Roles: Speaker of the SIG “Young Modellers in Ecology (YoMos)” (2015–2019); spokesperson in the research training group “BioMove” (2015–2018); part of the MCED award committee (2015–2019)
- Memberships: CorrelAid volunteer (since 2019); Data Visualization Society (since 2019); “R for Data Science” Online Learning Community (since 2018)
- Conference Organisation: 11th–14th Workshop of the Young Modellers in Ecology (2016–2019); 1st International BioMove Symposium (2018); Annual Symposium of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria & Switzerland (2013)