Professor Andy Russell

About me:

I am a behavioural ecologist with a primary interest in the role of mothers (and others) in the generation of adaptive phenotypes in variable environments, and a member of the Behaviour group in the Centre for Ecology and Conservation at the University of Exeter’s Cornwall Campus.

I currently have two long-term model systems:

(1) Chestnut-crowned babbler from outback Australia (2004-present): In cooperatively breeding systems, parent(s) are aided in their reproductive attempts by helpers. The number of helpers varies within a habitat and between years, but when mothers have more helpers they can expect to produce more offspring. Using the cooperative chestnut-crowned babbler, I am investigating the interplay between climatic enviroments, social enviroments (i.e. numbers of helpers) and parental investment strategies with a view to shedding new light on: (a) parental effects; (b) social evolution; and (c) adaptive responses to climate change.

(2) Parid tits of the Pyrenees (2010-present). One of the many changes the world is currently facing is climatic. Measuring and understanding population consequences of climate change is important for projections of biodiversity. Mothers might be in a unique position to ‘inform’ their unborn offspring of current climate and, through doing so, hasten the emergence of adaptive phenotypes. I am testing this idea using nest-box populations of blue and great tits along a 1500m altitudinal (climatic) gradient of the French Pyrenees.

Please contact me should you wish to join my research in these, or related, topics. For further details, please see Research.

Interests:

My broad interests involve behaviour, adaptation and evolution. I manage or co-manage two long-term model systems: (1) the Chestnut-Crowned Babbler Project in outback Australia (initiated 2004); and (2) the Pyrenean Tit Project in the French Pyrenees (initiated 2010 with Alexis Chain, CNRS Moulis). Any question that yields new insight into how these two systems tick interests me!

Qualifications:

2000: PhD, University of Sheffield, UK
1993: BSc (Hons), Zoology, University of Glasgow, UK

Career:

2017-pres: Professor in Animal Behaviour
2014-2017: Associate Professor in Animal Behaviour
2012-2014: Senior Lecturer in Animal Behaviour, University of Exeter, UK
2011-2012: Royal Society Senior University Research Fellow, University of Exeter, UK
2010-2011: Lecturer, Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, USA
2003-2010: Royal Society URF, Department of Animal & Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, UK
2002-2003: PDRA, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK
1999-2002: PDRA, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK