I am on a Marie Curie fellowship in the Andy Gardner group at the University of St Andrews. I have broad interests in evolutionary biology and use mathematical approaches to address questions on brain evolution, the evolution of social behavior, and the species problem.Research Brain evolution: This work studies factors promoting large brain evolution. We have found that cognitive ability can be proportional to brain mass if memory is metabolically costly enough, and that large brains may evolve in the absence of evolutionary arms races caused by social interactions. Evolution of social behavior: This work studies a classic hypothesis that considers social behavior as arising from manipulation by others. I have found that eusociality arising from maternal manipulation can become stable due to the evolution of helper specialization. The species problem: Species are infamously difficult to define but they are important as evolutionary inferences and conservation policies rely on what is identified as a species. I studied a classic notion of species, known as the biological species concept, and explored its consequences. I have found that various difficulties of this classic species notion can be overcome by letting populations belong to multiple species. Contact information
School of Biology |
