biology

Tanja Schwander

Tanja Schwander is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tanja Schwander rather than just read about it. In short: Tanja Schwander (born 1978) is a Swiss evolutionary biologist and professor at the University of Lausanne. She is known for her work on the evolution of sexual reproduction.

Key takeaways

Tanja Schwander belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tanja Schwander to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tanja Schwander from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Tanja Schwander (born 1978) is a Swiss evolutionary biologist and professor at the University of Lausanne. She is known for her work on the evolution of sexual reproduction. She was awarded the John Maynard Smith Prize by the European Society for Evolutionary Biology in 2009. She serves on the Swiss National Academy of Sciences Board of the Platform Biology, and is the secretary of the Swiss Zoological Society.

Education and career Tanja Schwander was born in 1978 in Brugg in Switzerland. She obtained her PhD in 2007 from the University of Lausanne on 'Evolution, maintenance and ecological consequences of genetic caste determination in Pogonomyrmex harvester ants'. Tanja Schwander then took a postdoctoral position at Simon Fraser University in Prof. Bernard J. Crespi's lab, before being hired as an independent researcher at the University of Groningen. In 2013, she moved back to University of Lausanne to begin her own research group. She is an elected member of the Swiss National Academy of Sciences Board of the Platform Biology from 2023 until the end of 2025. Schwander is secretary of the Swiss Zoological Society.

Work Tanja Schwander's work has focused on understanding the consequences of asexuality using Timema stick insects as a model system. Her work has contributed to the current understanding of the evolution of sexual reproduction, the paradox of sex, and sexual conflict. With Marc Robinson-Rechavi at the University of Lausanne, she co-led research, published in Science Advances in 2022, that showed asexually-reproducing stick insects cannot adapt to changing conditions as fast as sexually-reproducing stick insects, leading to a reduction in the species' genetic diversity.

Awards 2009. John Maynard Smith Prize of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology 2020. European Research Council Consolidator Grant

Notable publications "Molecular evidence for ancient asexuality in Timema stick insects", Current Biology "Deleterious mutation accumulation in asexual Timema stick insects", Molecular Biology and Evolution "Neutral and selection-driven decay of sexual traits in asexual stick insects", Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences "Consequences of asexuality in natural populations: insights from stick insects", Molecular Biology and Evolution

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tanja Schwander

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tanja Schwander claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tanja Schwander before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tanja Schwander ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tanja Schwander

In research: Tanja Schwander appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tanja Schwander in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tanja Schwander is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1978 births, Academic staff of the University of Lausanne, Evolutionary biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tanja Schwander outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Tanja Schwander in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tanja Schwander means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tanja Schwander out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tanja Schwander in simple terms?

Tanja Schwander (born 1978) is a Swiss evolutionary biologist and professor at the University of Lausanne. She is known for her work on the evolution of sexual reproduction.

Why does Tanja Schwander matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tanja Schwander?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tanja Schwander.