Luis Kuchenmüller

I was born in Freiburg, Southern Germany. As my family was generally very close to nature, I am passionate about nature conservation and climate change research. At an early age, visiting the Aegean Sea and the Galapagos Islands sparked my wish to become a marine biologist.

In 2015, I headed north to study biology at the University of Hamburg, and in 2019, I commenced a marine biology MSc program at the University of Bremen. For my final research thesis, I joined the integrative ecophysiology team at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research. I worked with a key species of one of the most rapidly changing environments on earth: Polar cod. For this project, I implanted heart rate bio-loggers and ran critical swim speed tests at 0 to 8°C with parallel respirometry. Further, I trained a machine-learning program to track swimming movements which allowed for tailbeat frequency analysis.

In 2022, I moved to Australia and joined Timothy Clark’s ecophysiology research group at Deakin University. As a PhD student, I studied the allometry of cardiorespiratory variables and their temperature dependence in salmonids, specifically Chinook salmon and rainbow trout. To investigate the impact of hyperoxia across the mass range, I built size-specific respirometry setups.

Many questions remain about body size effects on temperature susceptibility in fishes, and my PhD in the Clark Lab aimed to help fill those knowledge gaps.

Contact Luis: luiskuchenmueller@gmail.com