We are delighted to have KLI alumna Cristina Villegas join the KLI again, this time as 'Group Leader, Philosophy of the Life Sciences'.

Cristina is a philosopher of biology specializing in causal explanations, probabilities and chance in evolutionary biology, with a special focus on evo-devo and evolvability research. She is particularly interested in the intersection between evolutionary developmental biology and evolutionary quantitative genetics, and her work revolves around the epistemological, ontological, and historical aspects of this intersection.

Cristina received her PhD degree in 2020 in Philosophy of Biology from the Complutense University of Madrid with honors (dissertation). She was a post-doctoral Fellow at the KLI (2021-2022), the CFCUL - Center for Philosophy of Science of the University of Lisbon (2022-2024), and the cE3c - Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes of the University of Lisbon (2025).

Her research interests include philosophy of evolutionary biology, philosophy of probability, chance in evolution, causality and dispositional explanations, evolutionary developmental biology, cultural evolution.

Read more at her personal website.

We wish Cristina a wonderful new beginning at the KLI!