I've been here at Oxford since 2000, where I was drawn by the opportunity to work on the long-term population study of tits at Wytham, particularly given its embedding in studies of other parts of this woodland ecosystem. I am fascinated by the way that individual variation in populations emerges from the interplay of ecological, evolutionary and developmental processes, and how this feeds through to population-level processes. I'm also very interested in the way that these processes differ with respect to the scale at which they are studied, or the scale on which they are expressed. I've approached these question in many contexts over the last 25 years, from life-history trait variation, host-parasite interaction and social behaviour to understanding trophic interactions and the influence of climate change.
My research group typically consists of 4-5 postdocs and associated fellows, 2-3 research assistants and 7-8 graduate students and I welcome MBiol project students within my group. Most of our research funding comes from external sources, particularly the ERC (I have been awarded two ERC Advanced Grants) and NERC. Opportunities are always advertised when available, but I also welcome inquiries about developing PhD or Postdoc projects with me here in Oxford; please send a CV and a one page outline of the research topics you are interested in.
behaviour, ecology, evolution, genetics, ornithology
