Research and response How you can help Information for students, applicants and staff
Academic staff in the Department and their research teams
Our work is centred around four main themes:
Here you can meet our academic staff and research fellows and watch videos about our science.
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Mark studies the biology of infectious disease, particularly the biology of parasitic nematode worms, and the immune state of wild mammals. View full profile
David works to understand and predict adaptive responses of organisms, and impacts on ecosystems, arising from widespread environmental change (e.g. climate, eutrophication). View full profile
Researchers
PhD students
Seth is an evolutionary ecologist who is broadly interested in the interactions between microbes and their insect hosts and how this interaction shapes the evolution of the insect immune system and other traits, such as life history. View full profile
PhD students
Michael is Professor of Ecology and former Head of the Department of Evolution, Ecology and Behaviour 2010-2018. View full profile
Researchers
PhD students
Michael is interested in the diversity of physiological mechanisms that animals employ in different environments or with different life-styles. The focus of his work is on the respiratory system of vertebrates, particularly the evolution of blood oxygen and carbon dioxide transport mechanisms and haemoglobin function. View full profile
PhD students
Andrea is an evolutionary geneticist working to answer questions about adaptation such as: Do sex and recombination allow rapid adaptation? Does sex-linkage promote adaptation? View full profile
Researchers
PhD students
Marcus is interested in the effect of temperature on virus transmission, including the minimum environmental temperature required for transmission, to identify regions at risk from invasive or endemic viruses. He is also interested in the potential for viruses to adapt to different conditions, and consequently, the risk they may pose in the future. View full profile
Jon's research focuses on understanding evolutionary constraints. To better understand these constraints, his work focuses on four areas: horizontal gene transfer (HGT), gene regulation, costs and benefits of immunity, and the properties of mutations. View full profile
Jakob is an evolutionary ecologist with broad interests in behaviour, ecology and conservation. He is working to uncover fundamental principles governing behavioural responses in animals and how these feed back at the population- and ecosystem level. View full profile
PhD students
Stephen a theoretical ecologist. He uses mathematical models to understand how organisms interact with each other and with their environment. View full profile
PhD students
Andy’s work is understanding the occurrence and consequences of interactions between species in natural communities, with a particular focus on infectious diseases. View full profile
Researchers
PhD students
Cristina is a plant ecologist interested in investigating the chances of remnant forest patches persisting, and eventually expanding across managed landscapes, in a changing world where climate extremes are expected to increase in frequency and magnitude. View full profile
James is a microbiologist who has studied evolution in bacteria, parasites, and viruses. His current research uses experimental genomics and modelling approaches to investigate how ecology and evolution shape, and are shaped by, horizontal gene transfer in bacterial communities. View full profile
Jenny is a conservation biologist interested in how the spatial arrangement of land use and management affects the viability of species. Jenny uses a mixture of empirical and modelling approaches. View full profile
PhD students
Greg is an evolutionary biologist interested in the role of biotic forces in evolution and ecology. His 'big question' is: 'how would the world be if animals and plants did not have symbionts?' Greg also works to exploit our fundamental understanding of host-symbiont interactions to improve bee husbandry and reduce the impact of vector born disease on livestock. View full profile
Researchers
PhD students
Jane’s main interests are in the functions, mechanisms and evolution of scent communication in mammals, animal welfare (particularly in relation to laboratory animals), rodent pest control, and the interactions between behaviour and disease. View full profile
Researchers
PhD students
David combines taxonomic and ecological expertise with laboratory studies to explore how protists behave in relation to a range of factors, including temperature shifts caused by global climate change. View full profile
Siobhan’s research asks broad questions about how microbial communities evolve and function. In particular, she is interested in how intra- and interspecific interactions within these communities can drive evolutionary changes, and how evolution can in turn shape community context. View full profile
Vicencio is an evolutionary biologist, interested in analysing physiological, genetic and evolutionary mechanisms by which individuals and populations cope with environmental change, including climate change. Vicencio's research uses temperate and tropical butterflies to study how phenotypic plasticity and evolutionary adaptation interact, and how genetic, regulatory, and developmental cascades that accomplish environmental responses may act as constraints on rapid adaptation.. View full profile
Steve is a population geneticist working primarily on genetic diversity in host-parasite interactions. He was one of the first to apply next-generation sequencing to experimental evolution, and demonstrated that co-evolution between hosts and parasites accelerated rates of molecular evolution. He has worked on field, clinical and experimental systems and leads a NERC large grant studying immunological variation in the wild. View full profile
Researchers
PhD students
Stew’s research focuses on invertebrate life-history evolution in natural and model systems. He uses field-based experiments and lab-based microcosm studies to try and understand how the interaction between the environment and individual level and population level processes shape the evolution and diversity of life-history strategies within natural populations. View full profile
Researchers
Tom is an evolutionary biologist investigating the feedback between genes, individual behaviour, and population level effects. He is particularly interested in sex chromosome meiotic drive, which he studies in a variety of species of fruit fly, and in the interplay between selfish genes, the environment, and fertility. View full profile
Researchers
PhD students
Ilik’s research is broadly aimed at understanding the factors that maintain genetic and phenotypic variation in natural populations. He studies this diverse problem in different species of moths and butterflies, in the context of rapid adaptation to environmental change (industrial melanism and insecticide resistance), conservation biology (response to climate change and habitat fragmentation), and genetic load (inbreeding depression and sex-determination). View full profile
Researchers
PhD students
Paula’s research focuses on mechanisms and evolutionary consequences of reproductive competition and sexual selection, particularly in mammals. She has broad interests in the fields of behavioural and evolutionary ecology relating to reproductive strategies, life history evolution and social behaviour. View full profile
PhD students
Raj is an ecological geneticist studying plant community ecology, molecular ecology and responses to environmental change. His primary research interest involves the study of eco-evolutionary responses to anthropogenic climate change, using grassland model systems. View full profile
Researchers
PhD students
Stuart's research focusses on fundamental questions on the themes of reproduction and life-history. Primarily he uses the Drosophila model, linking fitness with mechanisms by combining evolutionary and behavioural ecology with genetics, molecular biology and ‘omics. Stuart is particularly interested in the role of reproductive proteins in mediating competition and conflict in, and how these processes are impacted by environmental factors and ageing.
Sharon works on plant-microbe insect interactions. Her research investigates how we can use beneficial soil bacteria and earthworms to increase plant yield while simultaneouslydefending against insect pests. View full profile
