People/Martin Fikacek/CV

Martin Fikáček: Curriculum vitae

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Nationality: Czech ORCID: 0000-0002-2078-6798 Online profiles: ResearchGate  |  Google Scholar  |  ORCID

Research Interests

• Biodiversity, evolution and systematics of beetles
• Fossil record and its integration into phylogenetic studies
• Island biogeography and ecology
• Coleoptera (especially aquatic and leaf litter lineages)
• Taxonomy of the hydrophiloid and myxophagan beetles
• Morphology and biology of immature stages of Coleoptera

Education

2006 — MSc. in Zoology, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

Thesis: Primary chaetotaxy of the head of the hydrophiloid beetles (Coleoptera: Hydrophiloidea). Supervisor: David Král. Opponent: Petr Švácha.

2010 — Ph.D. in Entomology, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

Thesis: Taxonomy, phylogeny, and fossil record of selected groups of water scavenger beetles (Coleoptera: Hydrophiloidea). Supervisor: Jakub Prokop. Opponents: Michael S. Engel (USA), Michael Balke (Germany).

Current Positions

• Assistant Professor — Department of Biological Sciences, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan (since 2021)
• Researcher — National Museum in Prague, Department of Entomology (2010–2021; since 2021 on unpaid leave)
• Technical Editor — Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae (since 2005, unpaid)
• Associate Editor — European Journal of Entomology (since 2025, unpaid)

Past Professional Experience

• Assistant Professor — Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Sciences, Department of Zoology (2012–March 2022)
• Adjunct Research Associate — Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, USA (2010–2016)
• Subject editor for aquatic beetles — ZooKeys (2010–2015)
• Associate Editor — Invertebrate Systematics & Phylogeny (2018–2021)

Languages

• English (fluent)
• Spanish (basic spoken)
• German (passive understanding)
• Czech (native speaker)

Publication Activity

Summary

	Total	Web of Science
Total number of publications	171	144
Publications in 2021–2026	37	37
Number of citations		1940
Number of citations w/o auto-citations		1316
H-index		19

For the complete bibliography, see List of Publications.

SCI Publications 2021–2026

	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Total
First author	4	1	1	0	6
Corresponding author	5	2	3	0	10
Co-author	12	2	7	0	21
Total	21	5	11	0	37

Representative Publications (2021–2026)

• F.-S. Hu et al. & Fikáček M. (2025): Ancient divergent evolution of specialized swimming modes in aquatic beetles. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 292(2045): 20243093. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.3093 [corresponding author; IF: 3.5, Q1]

• Kusy D. et al. & Fikáček M. (2025): Phylogenomics resolves the relationships among Hydrophiloidea-Histeroidea families (Coleoptera) and challenges the single colonization of aquatic habitats. Systematic Entomology 50(4): 813-835. https://doi.org/10.1111/syen.12679 [corresponding author; IF: 4.9, Q1]

• Qvarnström M., Fikáček M. et al. (2021): Exceptionally preserved beetles in a Triassic coprolite of putative dinosauriform origin. Current Biology 31(15): 3374-3381. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.05.015 [corresponding author; IF: 7.5, Q1]

Grants

As Principal Investigator

• 2023–present — NSTC 113-2621-B-110-005-MY3: Cataloguing overlooked diversity of Taiwanese forests: integrative systematics of hyper-diverse leaf litter beetles. National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan.

• 2022–2023 — NSTC 112-2621-B-110-004: Genomic and ecological bases of coexistence in a patchy habitat: Taiwanese endemic wet rock beetles as a model case. National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan.

• 2021–2022 — MOST 110-2621-B-110-001: DNA barcoding and metabarcoding as tools to study Taiwanese leaf litter beetle communities. Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology.

• 2012–2014 — Grant Agency of the Czech Republic: Ancient habitat shifts from water to dry land: phylogeny and biogeography of the Gondwanan Sphaeridiinae.

• 2009–2011 — Grant Agency of the Czech Academy of Sciences: Comparative morphology of fossil hydrophiloid beetles and their significance for the phylogeny reconstruction of the superfamily (Coleoptera: Hydrophiloidea).

• 2007–2009 — Grant Agency of the Charles University: Phylogeny and biodiversity of the hydrophiloid beetles: fossil versus recent taxa and adult versus larval morphology.

• 2005–2006 — Grant Agency of the Charles University: Evolutionary trends and biosystematics of the Hydrophiloidea (Coleoptera).

As Co-PI

• 2015–2018 — EU Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant: BIG4: Biosystematics, informatics and genomics of the big 4 insect groups: training tomorrow's researchers and entrepreneurs. [1]

SYNTHESYS Grants

• 2013 — Revision of the New Zealand hydrophilid beetles, Museum of Natural History, London, UK.
• 2008 — Fossil hydrophilids of the Eocene amber from the Paris basin, Museum d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France.
• 2007 — Taxonomy of the Georissidae and selected Sphaeridiinae from the Arabian Peninsula and Oriental Region, Institute des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium.

Teaching

Current (National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, 2021–present)

• Evolutionary Biology
• Biogeography
• Biodiversity: Natural History Collections
• Scientific Writing, Illustration and Graphics for Biological Sciences
• Phylogenetics in R

Past

• 2010–2021 — Main lecturer, Diversity of Insects (MSc. course in English), Department of Zoology, Charles University in Prague
• 2010–2021 — Associated lecturer, Biology of Aquatic Animals, Department of Ecology, Charles University in Prague
• 2012–2019 — Field lab instructor, Biology of the terrestrial ecosystems, Charles University in Prague
• 2015–2016 — Associated lecturer, Advanced Entomology (fossil data in studies of recent insects), Masaryk University, Brno
• 2018 — Course assistant, Beetle Systematics Workshop, Czech University of Life Sciences
• 2014 — Lab instructor, Beetle Systematics Workshop, Czech University of Life Sciences

Supervised Students

	Currently supervised	Finished
Ph.D. students	0	4
MSc. students	0	3
Undergraduate students	1	4

Supervised Student Grants

• 2025 — NSTC 114-2831-C-110-016-B: Diversity and evolution of Anacaena beetles in Taiwan. PI: Chun-Fang Chang, National Sun Yat-sen University.

• 2021 — MOST: Evolution of the swimming behavior in water scavenger beetles (Coleoptera: Hydrophilidae). PI: Fang-Shuo Hu, National Chung Hsing University.

• 2019 — SYNTHESYS CZ-TAF-2524: Estimation of leaf litter beetle diversity in mountain Taiwan using DNA barcoding. PI: Fang-Shuo Hu.

• 2018–2020 — Grant Agency of Charles University: Jumping beetles as winners in passive dispersal: evolutionary dynamics and biogeography of wingless moss-inhabiting beetles. PI: Albert Damaška.

• 2017–2019 — Grant Agency of Charles University: Stream life on a shaky island: evolutionary history and speciation of New Zealand stream-inhabiting beetles. PI: Vít Sýkora.

• 2018 — Ernst Mayr Travel Grant: Assessment of Indian aquatic Coleoptera in the National Museum, Prague. PI: Sayali Sheth.

• 2016 — SYNTHESYS CZ-TAF-5815: Taxonomic revision of Cetiocyon Hansen, 1990 (Hydrophilidae) of New Guinea. PI: Wojciech Szczepański.

Research Internships

Year	Institution and activity	Duration
2007	Zoologische Staatssammlung, München, Germany — Michael Balke Lab (molecular taxonomy methods)	1 month
2009	University of Kansas, Lawrence, USA — Andrew Short Lab (taxonomic research)	1 month
2010	Landcare Research, New Zealand Arthropod Collection — cooperation with R. A. B. Leschen on NZ Hydrophilidae	1 month
2011	Institute of Entomology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou — cooperation with F.-L. Jia on Chinese Hydrophilidae	1 month
2014	Landcare Research, New Zealand Arthropod Collection — cooperation with R. A. B. Leschen on NZ Hydrophilidae	1 month
2016	Landcare Research, New Zealand Arthropod Collection — cooperation with R. A. B. Leschen on NZ Hydrophilidae	2 months
2017	Landcare Research, New Zealand Arthropod Collection — cooperation with R. A. B. Leschen on NZ Hydrophilidae	1 month

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Field Work

Year	Location	Duration
2006	Ecuador	5 weeks
2008	SW India	5 weeks
2010	New Zealand	1 week
2011	S China	4 weeks
2012	E Cuba; New Zealand	4 weeks; 4 weeks
2013	SW China; Chile	2 weeks; 5 weeks
2014	Dominican Republic	5 weeks
2015	Republic of South Africa	4 weeks
2016	New Zealand; Puerto Rico	7 weeks; 2 weeks
2017	Panama; New Zealand	3 weeks; 4 weeks
2018	Taiwan	5 weeks
2019	Taiwan; Australia	3 weeks; 4 weeks
2024	Japan (Iriomote Is.)	1 week