About
Evolutionary Biology · Ageing · Open Science
Lecturer in Biological Sciences · University of East Anglia
Biography
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.
Timeline
Lecturer in Biological Sciences
University of East Anglia
Past-President · SORTEE
Society for Open, Reliable & Transparent Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
Data Editor
Ecology Letters
Publications Committee
Ecological Society of America
Postdoc · University of Glasgow
with Prof. Pat Monaghan · zebra finch
Intergenerational transfer of ageing: the Lansing Effect
Postdoc · University of East Anglia
with Prof. Alexei Maklakov · C. elegans
The cost of longevity: transgenerational consequences of parental lifespan extension
PhD · University of Edinburgh
with Dr Jacob Moorad · burying beetle
Experimental & comparative analyses of maternal age and senescence
One node per work in the record, joined where two works share at least one author. Authors come from Crossref, so a work Crossref has no author list for yet still gets a node, just drawn alone. Node size is the number of authors, and colour is the primary theme. Works of the same theme are pulled together, so the map groups by subject, and preprints form a cluster of their own, drawn hollow. Drag a node to pull the layout about.
One node per co-author, joined where two people appear on the same work. Node size is the number of works shared with me. Click a person to list what the two of them wrote, and any title in that list to find it in the record below. Drawn from Crossref author lists, so it reflects what publishers have deposited.
01
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.
02
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.
03
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.
Output by year
Distribution by theme
A large part of my work is building standards, tools and culture that make ecology and evolutionary biology more open, reliable and reproducible.
Journal editing
Open science publications
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, to pull data straight from published figures.
Source ↗A Shiny app that walks you through writing a high-quality README for research data and code.
Source ↗An R package for structured, reproducible simulations in ecology & evolution, co-authored and led by J. Pick.
Preprint ↗Colophon
Set in Archivo and DM Mono.
Publications on this page update automatically from my
ORCID record,
no rebuild required. Author lists come from
Crossref.
The curve behind the page is a Gompertz survivorship simulation, tied to
how far down you have scrolled.
Source repository
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