I studied Zoology at Sheffield where I continued to do a PhD on mechanisms of sexual selection, which I obtained in 2005. During this time I also ran field expeditions and worked on projects encompassing a variety of topics from sea bird ecology in Northern Canada to conservation of giant otters in Bolivia. Following my PhD I moved to Oxford University to take up a Research Fellow in Ornithology and subsequently a Browne Research Fellowship at The Queen’s College, Oxford. During this time I started working on social evolution, which is the focus of my current research. In 2011 I moved to Lund to take up an assistant professorship (VR).

Some of the topics I work on are (see project pages for more information):

1. Promiscuity and the evolution of cooperation
2. Sexual cooperation and harm
3. Reproductive isolation and genetic mate compatibility

Techniques

I use a combination of comparative analyses and experimental and genetic analyses on ostriches.

Ostriches provide an ideal study system for examining social evolution because they have a very flexible and complex social life that involves synchronized courtship, communal nesting, kidnapping, chick creching and group defence. There are also four subspecies of ostriches that are separated by a gradient of genetic differentiation making them an ideal system for studying reproductive isolation and mate compatibility.