I'm interested in understanding and investigating the huge diversity of ageing patterns that exists across the tree of life - from insects with elaborate parental care to fish, worms and birds.
My current research focuses on evolutionary theory, maternal senescence, the inter- and transgenerational effects of parental age and diet, and thermal tolerance across a range of study systems. Underpinning all of this work is a strong commitment to open science and to improving the reproducibility of research in ecology and evolutionary biology.
I completed my PhD at the University of Edinburgh with Dr Jacob Moorad, where I studied maternal ageing in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides. I subsequently held postdoctoral positions at UEA with Prof. Alexei Maklakov, working on the nematode worm C. elegans, and at the University of Glasgow with Prof. Pat Monaghan, working on zebra finches, before joining UEA as a Lecturer.
Understanding why senescence evolves and why ageing varies so dramatically across species. This includes inter- and transgenerational effects of parental age on offspring life histories, including maternal-age effects, the Lansing effect, and the evolutionary costs of longevity.
Investigating how environmental factors, particularly temperature and diet, shape life histories. This includes heat tolerance and adaptation in seed beetles, and the effects of dietary restriction and fasting within and across generations.
Developing tools, policies, and best practices that improve the transparency and reproducibility of ecological and evolutionary research, including code review, data and code sharing, preprints, and reporting standards.
A large part of my work is building standards, tools and culture that make ecology and evolutionary biology more open, reliable and reproducible.
See the tools & apps I've built to support this work.
Open-source R packages and Shiny / web apps I've built and contributed to, to make research easier and more reproducible.
A point-and-click GUI for the metaDigitise package — pull data straight from published figures.
GitHub →A Shiny app that walks you through writing a high-quality README for research data and code.
GitHub →An R package for structured, reproducible simulations in ecology & evolution — co-authored (led by J. Pick).
EcoEvoRxiv →