Dr Sasha Dall

About me:

The primary aim of my research is to explore how animals cope with the unexpected opportunities and dangers they face in their day-to-day lives. To this end, I study how animals collect and provide information to reduce uncertainty about significant events, or how they insure against it, along with evolutionary and ecological consequences of such risk management. Research in my group ranges from the development of explicit theoretical (mathematical and computational) models, through work on captive birds in aviaries (zebra finches, starlings) to work in the field with birds (pied flycatchers, barn swallows, red grouse, European shags, chestnut-crowned babblers) and mammals (badgers, lions, wolves, grey squirrels). I am also a (senior) Editor for Proceedings of the Royal Society of London - Biological Sciences.

Click here to listen to a piece I did for US Public Radio (The Academic Minute) about my work, and here for a 2021 update interview for Faculti.

Interests:

I am interested in how animals manage the unexpected dangers and opportunities they face in their lives. Broadly speaking, there are two main strategies for managing such uncertainty adaptively, be it when attempting to find food or mates, navigate, avoid predators or interact socially. Individuals can attempt to reduce it in a particular context by gathering or providing information, or they can attempt to minimise the impact of uncertainty by insuring themselves. Examples of the latter include: developing and maintaining a range of options to guarantee a back-up should the current situation deteriorate - being flexible or generalist; developing and maintaining buffers - like protective morphologies and energy reserves; or altering their local environment (niche construction).

Qualifications:

1991 BSc (Bristol)
1996 PhD (Bristol)

Career:

2024-2025 Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellow
2017-now Associate Professor of Theoretical Biology, Centre for Ecology & Conservation, University of Exeter
2010-2017 Senior Lecturer in Mathematical Ecology, School of Biosciences, University of Exeter
2005-2009 Lecturer in Mathematical Ecology, School of Biosciences, University of Exeter
2000-2004 Research Associate (NERC, UK), Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK
1998-1999 Research Fellow (The Royal Society, UK), Mitrani Center for Desert Ecology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
1997-1998 Research Fellow (NSF, USA), Department of Mathematics, Florida State University, USA
1996-1997 Temporary Lecturer in Behavioural Ecology, School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol UK