Overview

My research interests are broad and generally based around how organisms respond to their physical, social and climatic environments and the consequences for survival, trait evolution and conservation. As such, I have completed research projects on a diverse range of topics, including the geographic divergence of dispersal-enhancing behavioural traits across contrasting environments in invasive cane toads, environmental versus maternal effects on offspring traits in viviparous skinks, and predator avoidance in fiddler crabs. Currently, I am exploring various aspects of the ecology, evolution and social behaviour of primitively eusocial bees such as the effects of environment versus social phenotype on brain size, tracking male survivorship using capture-mark-recapture techniques, and caste-specific gene expression plasticity in response to novel environments. 

Qualifications

• 2018 PhD in Zoology, University of Sydney
• 2011 First Class BA (Hons.) in Zoology, University of Tasmania

Career

• 2019: ongoing ERC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Exeter
• 2018 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Australian National University

Research group links

• Behavioural Ecology
• Animal Behaviour
• Cognition
• Evolutionary Biology

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Research

Research interests

• Phenotypic responses to environment: consequences for survival, trait evolution & conservation

• Ecology and conservation of amphibians and reptiles

• Effects of environmental contaminants on fitness-related traits

• Invasion ecology

• Social evolution

• Cognition

Much of my research involves testing the effect of environmental, social and genetic/genomic factors on the expression and evolution of phenotypic traits, and consequences for survival. I take an inter-disciplinary approach to my research integrating the fields of ecology, behaviour, cognition, ecophysiology, genetics and genomics to test proximate and ultimate hypotheses. I enjoy combining techniques such as field surveys and observations, field and lab-based experiments, microCT brain scanning, and genotyping and genomics for gene expression analyses in my research. 

Research projects

Current projects

• Using microCT brain analysis to investigate the effects of environment versus social phenotype on brain size in facultatively eusocial bees.
• Caste-specific gene expression plasticity in response to novel environments.

Previous projects

• Male survivorship and the evolution of eusociality in partially bivoltine sweat bees.
• Risk-taking and predator avoidance in a fiddler crabs.
• Geographic divergence of dispersal-enhancing traits across contrasting environments in invasive cane toads.
• Environmental versus maternal effects on offspring traits in viviparous skinks.

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