Senior Lecturer in Evolutionary Biology

Rudy received his Ph.D. from the University of Oklahoma in 2010, and then went on to two postdoctoral positions, the first with Brian Langerhans at North Carolina State University, and the second with Patrik Nosil at the University of Sheffield. He joined the Department of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London, in January 2015 as a Lecturer.

He is interested in understanding the evolutionary processes that generate biological diversity, with a special focus on ecological speciation. He uses integrative approaches that combine behavioural, chemical ecological, life-history, morphological, population genetic, phylogenetic comparative, and genomic methods/assays that include observational studies, manipulations in the field, and laboratory experiments. He further puts great emphasis on comparative analyses among species and populations, and make use of several different study systems (livebearing fishes, mammals, and insects) that span a range of biological diversity.

RHUL ; Researchgate ; X

E-mail:  Rudiger.Riesch at rhul.ac.uk

(co-supervised with Prof. Dave Morritt and Dr. Paul Clark)

"The dynamics and interactions of plastic debrison the Isle of Cumbrae, Scotland"

Daniella is a PhD student, based at Royal Holloway University of London and the Natural History Museum, London. Her research focuses on the accumulation of plastic debris in intertidal beach sediments and coastal waters of the Isle of Cumbrae, Scotland, and its ingestion by the local infaunal species. She previously undertook her MSc by Research at Exeter University in 2018, investigating microplastic ingestion and associated oxidative stress responses and deleterious effects on reproduction in marine polychaete worms. Prior to this, in September 2013, Daniella earned her BSc (Hons) in Marine Biology and Coastal Ecology at Plymouth University

E-mail: Daniella.Hodgson.2017 at live.rhul.ac.uk

(co-supervised with Cristina Garcia)

"Evolutionary ecology of guppies (Poecilia reticulata) from oil-polluted waters in Trinidad"

Hannah is a PhD student with the London NERC DTP based at Royal Holloway University of London. Her research project is focused on the ecology and evolution of populations of guppies (Poecilia reticulata) from oil-polluted waters in Trinidad. This project will investigate population genomics, diet and gut microbiome variation, intraspecific competition and predator interactions to shed light on (a) how guppies may be adapting to these toxic environments and (b) what factors are driving this adaptation. Her previous studies focused on marine ecology, looking at phylogeography and population ecology of marine invertebrates. This PhD project will allow her to combine molecular techniques with exciting work in the field.

E-mail: Hannah.Mcgovern.2023 at live.rhul.ac.uk

"The impact of oil-pollution on diet and parasites of guppies (Poecilia reticulata) in southwestern Trinidad"

Ella graduated from Royal Holloway University of London in July of 2024 with a BSc (Hons) in Zoology. Her undergraduate final year research project focused on invasive species in the River Thames, particularly whether Chinese mitten crabs, Eriocheir sinensis, will forage on Asian clams, Corbicula fluminea. As a continuation of researching the effects of anthropogenic activity on wildlife, Ella joined Rudy’s lab in September of 2024 as a Master’s research student investigating the effects of oil pollution on diet and parasitism of guppies to contribute to our understanding of how and why animals may invade extreme environments, particularly those affected by anthropogenic pollution.

E-mail: ella.holbrook.2021 at live.rhul.ac.uk

"The effect of environmental gradients on the life history and diet of Poecilia vivipara"

Rebecca graduated from Royal Holloway University of London in July of 2024 with a BSc (Hons) in Zoology. Her undergraduate project focused on how light and sound pollution affects urban birds, particularly how sleep/wake cycles and feeding behaviour are affected, respectively. Rebecca then joined Rudy's lab in September of 2024 and is currently working on a Masters research project looking at livebearing fish from Brazil. Her project investigates whether variation in the life history and diet of Poecilia vivipara can be seen along environmental gradients.

E-mail: rebecca.stledger.2021 at live.rhul.ac.uk

(co-supervised with Julia Koricheva)

"Using soundscape ecology to assess how plant diversity affects animal diversity in forests and urban habitats"

Rich was a PhD student with the London NERC DTP, based at Royal Holloway University of London, UK. His research project used acoustic monitoring to characterise the effects of different forestry and park management practices on animal diversity and activity. Previously, his studies had focused on the environment and geography, particularly environmental monitoring, and he'd often felt sound was an important aspect of the environment that hadn't received much attention until recently. Working on his PhD project enabled him to combine long-term interests in sound, as a former musician and sound engineer, and monitoring technology with a life-long passion for nature.    

Twitter ; Functional Ecologist 

"Phenotypic differentiation in invasive guppies"

Eleanor graduated from Royal Holloway in 2017 with a BSc (Hons) in Zoology. She joined Rudy’s lab in January 2018 for an internship, during which time she worked alongside Rudy, Francesco and Olina on body shape and life-histories of invasive guppies. Since finishing this internship, she initially moved to Hartpury College and University Centre to supervise and support the students who keep their horses at livery there. She is currently working on a Masters project with Steve Portugal on mole rat biomechanics.

"Do oil-polluted sites in Trinidad serve as a parasite refuge for the guppy, Poecilia reticulata"

Katherine graduated from Royal Holloway with a BSc (Hons) in Biology in July 2019 and began her MSc by Research in September 2019. Katherine was supervised by Rudy for her undergraduate third-year project that investigated body-shape variation between Trinidadian guppies from oil-polluted and non-polluted habitats. For her Masters, Katherine looked at the Trinidadian guppy from a different perspective. This time she explored if oil pollution potentially acts as a parasite refuge for the Trinidadian guppy. To this end, she focused on internal and external parasite load of guppies from several oil-polluted sites and compared this to the parasite load of guppies from several non-polluted sites. 

"Phenotypic diversity in poeciliid fishes"

Gemma graduated from the University of Bristol in 2015 with a BSc (Hons) in Zoology. She then worked for a year before completing a Masters in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Queen Mary, University of London in 2017. For her Masters, she used molecular techniques to identify the presence and evolutionary history of bacterial symbionts across a range of ant species, originating from all over the world. Gemma has been working as a Seasonal Ecologist for a consultancy since April 2018. Alongside this, she worked as an intern in Rudy’s lab between June and September 2018 where she was assisting Francesco process data collected from Italy, Spain and Trinidad.

LinkedIn, Researchgate

"Intra- and inter-specific variation in maternal provisioning and its influence on offspring size at birth and embryo fat content in livebearing fishes"

Johannes, who lives in Berlin, Germany, received his 1st Master’s degree from the Free University Berlin in 2018. His work focuses on ecological topics and is motivated by his experience as a teaching assistant in the research group of Prof. Dr. Monika Hilker, culminating in a graduation research project at the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) with Dr. David Bierbach and Dr. Kate Laskowski. For his M.Sc. degree in marine and freshwater ecology with Rudy, Johannes was investigating maternal resource provisioning (lecithotrophy/ matrotrophy) across different species of live-bearing fish. The goal was to identify environmental factors affecting the amount of resources females pass on to their offspring and to explore what measures can be used to analyse embryonic life-history data.

"Body-shape and life-history variation in the Trinidadian guppy"

Emily graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Biology from Royal Holloway in 2018. For her third-year research project, Emily was supervised by Rudy, and her project focused on body-shape variation in invasive mosquitofish along environmental gradients in Italy and Spain. In September 2018, Emily began her Masters with Rudy, where she was using her undergraduate skills to conduct an analysis of body shape on the Trinidadian guppy, and combined this with learning how to carry out life-history dissections and analyses. The end goal was to explore how oil pollution is causing shared and unique aspects of body-shape and life-history variation in the Trinidadian guppy.