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Research interests
Evolution of animal conflict and cooperation, using fieldwork and theory.
Endlessly fascinating Belonogaster wasps, Ghana (PK)
What links climate and cooperation?
Across social animals, links are emerging between climatic variation and the evolution of sociality. My research aims to contribute to this debate using experiments and theoretical modelling (e.g., theory for altruism in fluctuating environments). I am conducting field experiments with African wasps, with colleagues in Cameroon, South Africa, and Kenya.
What role do threats and coercion play in social evolution?
Can organisms use Machiavellian tactics to coerce others into cooperation? I have recently published on the evolution of 'blackmail' between family members, and I am developing experiments in the evolution of dominance hierarchies.
What explains paradoxical acts of cooperation?
2024-Present Lecturer, School of Biological Sciences, Bristol
2021-2024 Marie Curie Global Fellow, Columbia University (USA) & University of Bristol (UK)
2021-2024 Junior Fellow of Simons Society of Fellows, Columbia University (USA)
2019-2020 Postdoc, Radford Lab, University of Bristol (UK)
2015-2019 PhD, University of Bristol (UK)
2014 Field assistant, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), Panama
2010-2013 BA (Hons.) Biological Sciences, Brasenose College, University of Oxford (UK)
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
WaspCLIM: H2020-MSCA-IF-2019
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
School of Biological SciencesDates
01/01/2021 to 31/12/2023
Thesis supervisions
Publications
Selected publications
01/04/2021Diminishing returns drive altruists to help extended family
Nature Ecology and Evolution
Altruism in a volatile world
Nature
Kin Blackmail as a Coercive Route to Altruism
International Behavioural Ecology Congress Abstracts
Recent publications
01/01/2022Cooperation, Evolution of
Reference Module in Life Sciences
Factors affecting follower responses to movement calls in cooperatively breeding dwarf mongooses
Animal Behaviour
Variation between species, populations, groups and individuals in the fitness consequences of outgroup conflict
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
Fitness consequences of outgroup conflict
eLife
Diminishing returns drive altruists to help extended family
Nature Ecology and Evolution
Thesis
Uncertainty and the evolution of altruism
Supervisors
Award date
23/01/2019