Dr. Ann Thijs is an interdisciplinary scientist with a passion for undergraduate education. Ann earned a dual undergraduate degree in Biology and Engineering from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (1998), in her home country of Belgium. After this, she completed a Masters in Environmental Engineering, also at KULeuven in Belgium (2000). As a postgraduate, she worked in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences on several national and international biogeochemistry projects. Her work included the development of a monitoring network for soil acidification, desiccation and eutrophication due to nitrogen depositions in wetland ecosystems, as well as phosphorus speciation in different soil types.  In 2004, Ann started as an international student in the Ecology, Evolution and Behavior graduate program at the University of Texas at Austin, where her work shifted from nitrogen and phosphorus to carbon cycling, coupled to the climate system. Her doctoral research was supported by a NASA Earth System Science Fellowship. Since earning her PhD, Ann has taught at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas, and came back to UT Austin in 2017 as an Assistant Professor of Instruction. Ann teaches Introductory Biology II and Ecology. She delights in teaching her students the elegance and interconnectedness of the natural world, in evolutionary and ecological time, and to help students in becoming critical and quantitative thinkers.