Principal Investigator
Wan Faridah Akmal Jusoh
Email: wanf.ajusoh[at]monash.edu
Current role
Wan is currently a Senior Lecturer and Honours Program Director at the School of Science, Monash University Malaysia. She teaches and coordinates the following units:
- BIO3820 – Tropical Terrestrial Ecology (Semester 2: June-Nov)
- ENV2726 – Global Conservation & Biodiversity (Semester 2: June -Nov)
- SCI2800 – Human Ecology & Biodiversity (Summer Semester: November-December)
Her primary research focuses on the taxonomy, systematics, and conservation of fireflies in Southeast Asia and the Australopacific region.
Other research interests
She started out as someone interested in conservation biology. Initially, her main interest was in fireflies in the mangroves of Malaysia. Although she has expanded her interests and scope of work since then, her primary focus remains firefly biology. She has also gradually become an insect taxonomist and systematist, with a keen interest in developing and mobilising species-based digital data from museum collections, particularly material collected in former colonial museums in Southeast Asia. During her 5+ years at the National University of Singapore, she was involved in projects at the crossroads between biodiversity research and the history of natural heritage. From 2019–2022, she managed and coordinated a large-scale project at LKCNHM to digitally repatriate original specimens of Singapore animals held in custodian museums—one aspect of Singapore’s natural heritage that has been ‘lost’ in deep history. This heritage project was built on the results of the previous digital imaging project, Wallace-Singapore (2017-2019), on which she also served as project manager.
Education
- 2015 – PhD in Entomology (Universiti Putra Malaysia) with a PhD training in Biology from University of Turku, Finland (Erasmus Mundus scholarship, 2011-2014, supervised by Niklas Wahlberg)
Appointments
- Co-Chair IUCN Species Survival Commission – Firefly Specialist Group (2022–)
- Honorary Secretary, Fireflyer International Network (FIN) Steering Committee (2025–2028)
- Fellow International, The Explorers Club
- Associate Editor for Entomology – Raffles Bulletin of Zoology (2022 –)
- Editorial Board Member, Journal of Tropical Biology & Conservation (2025 –)
Lab members
Fathan A. Muharraran
PhD student (Sept 2025 to present)
Topic: Integrative taxonomy and systematics of Colophotia (Coleoptera: Lampyridae)
Fathan graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree from Monash University. During his undergraduate studies, he discovered his passion for ecology while investigating the impacts of artificial lights on firefly populations. He now aims to incorporate integrative taxonomy and systematics to understand resilient fireflies in urban forests. His curious nature often leads to different interests and hobbies – from music and art to sports and nature observation. Despite his wide-ranging interests, he remains consistent in his passion to understand nature.
Connect with Fathan on LinkedIn: Fathan Anandadzikra Muharraran
Sofwan Bin Badrud’din
PhD student (December 2025 to present)
Topic: Taxonomy and systematics of macromoths (Lepidoptera)
Sofwan graduated from the University of Malaya with a major in Zoology and later completed his Master’s degree at Imperial College London. His research focuses on documenting Lepidoptera, particularly moth diversity and exploring their ecological and evolutionary relationships in Peninsular Malaysia. His work in databasing and digitising Henry Barlow’s historic Lepidoptera collection represents the first effort of its kind in West Malaysia, contributing valuable resources for future biodiversity and conservation research. His future research will focus on moth species specialising in swamp ecosystems, aiming to understand their ecological and evolutionary relationships within these fragile environments.
Connect with Sofwan on LinkedIn: Sofwan Badr
Tan Wei Jack
Master of Science student (Sept 2025 to present)
Topic: Captive breeding of fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae)
Jack graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) with a major in Tropical Environmental Biology from Monash University. He has been working with fireflies for 2 years, both in the field and in the lab. His work involves rearing and breeding various firefly species to better understand their behaviour and life cycles.
Connect with Jack on LinkedIn: Wei Jack Tan
Nicholas H. L. Tan
Master of Science (May 2026 to present)
Topic: Understanding firefly larval taxonomy through morphology, DNA and chemical profiling
Nicholas holds a Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology. He has previously worked in the private sector as an agricultural entomologist, specialising in the rearing of beneficial insects, agricultural pest identification, and integrated crop management. He has also contributed to research on ant-plant interactions and pitcher plant taxonomy. Beyond his research, Nicholas is an avid wildlife photographer with a strong interest in insects, reptiles, and plants. Using these skills, he helped curate a preliminary database of firefly flash patterns in 2024. Now, he is currently pursuing a Master of Science at Monash University Malaysia. His research focuses on the systematics of Malaysian fireflies, integrating morphology, DNA barcoding, and chemical profiling.
Connect with Nicholas on LinkedIn: Nicholas (H.L.) Tan
Ting Guan Liang
Research Assistant (July 2026 to December 2026)
Guang Liang is a guy who loves animals. His passions come from watching Animal Planet and Nat Geo Wild during his childhood. He interned as a zookeeper and presenter, which deepened his love for wildlife. He has just completed an honours degree with First Class, studying the diversity and species composition of herpetofauna in an urban green space. He hopes to achieve something great when he graduates.
Connect with Liang on LinkedIn: Guang Liang Ting
Pua Ming Ze
Honours Research Student (July 2026 to May 2027)
Ming Ze’s love for wildlife grew from reading science comic books as a child, which led him to pursue a Bachelor of Science Degree, majoring in Tropical Environmental Biology and Applied Microbiology. After 3 years of his studies, during which he also interned as a conservationist, he developed a newfound interest in tiny coexistences in nature, as well as a joy in appreciating nature on-site. In his Honours year, he intends to explore how different ant species interact with hemipterans within their trophobiotic relationship.
Connect with Ming Ze on LinkedIn: Ming Ze Pua
Alumni
Visiting Researcher (Sept 2025 to June 2026) – Zombie ants ecology
Katherine Anne Vyhnal (Katie)
Katie graduated from Occidental College with a Bachelor of Arts in Biology. During her undergraduate studies, she worked in a Microbial Symbiosis lab, where she cultivated her interest in fieldwork through tropical ecology and organismal symbiosis research, studying planthoppers in Costa Rica and their symbiotic gut bacteria. She was a Fulbright-National Geographic awardee to Monash University Malaysia to conduct preliminary genetic research on the parasitic relationship between ants and Ophiocordyceps fungi at Gunung Mulu National Park, Sarawak.
Connect with Katie on LinkedIn: Katherine (Katie) Vyhnal
Zaydhameed Fajurdeen
Honours student (July 2025 to present) – DNA delimitation in fireflies
Hailing from Colombo, Sri Lanka, Zayd has been volunteering in conservation since high school. Zayd studied for a Bachelor of Science at Monash University Malaysia, specialising in Tropical Environmental Biology with a minor in Genetics and Genomics. Recently, Zayd completed a Bachelor of Science (Honours) with First Class. His research focused on the population genomics of urban fireflies in the Klang Valley. This project combined Zayd’s passion for wildlife with his interest in genomic studies. Outside the lab and field, Zayd enjoys writing poetry, watching movies, and powerlifting.
Connect with Zayd on LinkedIn: Zaydhameed Fajurdeen
Hooi Cheen Teng
Research Assistant (Jan – May 2026) – Digitisation of entomofauna
Cheen Teng graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Biology from the University of Sheffield, UK. While she has always had an interest in insects, her passion for entomology was further fueled by voluntary work in curating insect specimen collections and conducting population surveys of Odonata species. She assisted the lab with a project on digitising entomofauna collections from Gunung Mulu National Park.
Connect with Cheen Teng on LinkedIn: Cheen Teng
Chan Tse Quan (Jerome)
Honours Student – Tropical Environmental Biology (Graduated in November 2025)
Jerome did his honours thesis and graduated with a major in Tropical Environmental Biology from Monash University Malaysia. His project focused on visualising firefly species richness in Malaysia using specimens from natural history collections. He enjoys being in nature and is an animal lover. He is currently an Associate in Climate Change and Sustainability Services at EY Malaysia.
Connect with Jerome on LinkedIn: Tse Quan Chan
WAN JUSOH LAB 