Karin Rengefors obtained her PhD in Limnology from Uppsala University, Sweden, in 1998. Her thesis work was focused on the role of resting stages in the ecology of freshwater phytoplankton. She proceeded to do a postdoc at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution where she learned molecular biological techniques. Since 2001 Rengefors is a Professor in Limnology at the Department of Biology, Lund University, Sweden. Her main research focus is on understanding the processes underlying speciation and biogeography in phytoplankton. Her approach is to study these processes at the population level by investigating genetic diversity, population genetic and genomic structure, dispersal, and local adaptation.Her current research projects focus on speciation of a cold-water dinoflagellate, population genomics of an invasive phytoplankton species, and popoulation genomics of the cyanobacterium Microcystis.