I work on a number of evolutionary and ecological questions with a number of species of birds in both the field and laboratory. Captive model systems such as the Gouldian finch and zebra finch provide excellent opportunities to understand diversity in questions relating to speciation, sociality, sexual selection, and signalling. We are also interested in how Australia's extreme and highly stochastic climate influences behaviour and life history evolution.
My main research interests are marine biodiversity and biogeography, with particular emphasis on species interactions, bioinvasions, and climate change. I use multidisciplinary approaches and combine experimental ecology, physiology, biogeochemistry, phylogeny, and modeling.
Brock Harpur is an Assistant Professor at Purdue University. His work explores the evolution and genetics of honey bees. Brock completed his Ph.D. on population genomics of honey bees at York University. Brock has been awarded the prestigious Julie Payette Research Scholarship from the National Science and Engineering Research Council, an Ontario Graduate Scholarship, the Entomological Society of Canada’s President’s Prize, and was an Elia Research Scholar during his time at York University.
Senior Lecturer in Ecology, University of Exeter, UK
Co-Secretary, Microbial Ecology Special Interest Group, British Ecological Society.
How important are microbes for determining animal health? My work seeks to understand how host-associated microbial communities can affect traits like digestion, nutrition, and disease susceptibility. I use amphibians as a model system for studying the vertebrate skin microbiome and how it protects against infection by the lethal pathogens Ranavirus and chytrid fungus.
I also study the structure and function of the gut microbiome in migratory birds.
Assistant Professor of Biomedical Sciences, Cornell University
An evolutionary biologist, paleobiologist, and ecologist primarily interested in comparative morphology. I work across the vertebrate tree including reptiles, amphibians, and birds, but specialize on bats and dinosaurs.
Dr. Steven Heritage is a teaching professor in the Department of Genetics, Cell Biology, and Anatomy at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He is a a clinical & evolutionary anatomist, mammalogist, and phylogenetic biologist mainly working on African mammals. He also serves as a coordinator for the IUCN SSC Afrotheria Specialist Group.
Junior Research Group Leader at Technical University of Munich, Germany. Before: researcher at the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt. PhD from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Diploma (M.Sc.) from Philipps-University Marburg, Germany. Member of the German Young Academy; German Representative of the International Biogeography Society.
Dr. David Hu is a mechanical engineer who studies the interactions of animals with water. He has discovered how dogs shake dry, how insects walk on water, and how eyelashes protect the eyes from drying. Originally from Rockville, Maryland, he earned degrees in mathematics and mechanical engineering from M.I.T., and is now Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Biology and Adjunct Professor of Physics at Georgia Tech. He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award for young scientists, the Ig Nobel Prize in Physics, and the Pineapple Science Prize (the Ig Nobel of China). His work has been featured in The Economist, The New York Times, Saturday Night Live, and Highlights for Children. He is the author of the book "How to walk on water and climb up walls," published by Princeton University Press.
Dr. Mona Ahmed Hussein is an Entomologist and Nematologist, currently working as a Professor of Biological Control at Pests & Plant Protection Dept., Agricultural & Biological Research Institute, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt.
She received her B.Sc. from the faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Egypt. She received a full M.Sc. scholarship from both the United State of America Ministry of Agriculture and the New Mexico State University (NMSU) in the field of Biological Control. She received her Ph.D. degree through scholarship from German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst DAAD), Germany in corporation with Fac. Science, Ain Shams Univ., Cairo, Egypt.
Prof. Hussein’s work is focused mainly on the production, formulation and field application of the entomopathogenic nematodes and their symbiotic bacteria.
Professor of Evolutionary Biomechanics at The Royal Veterinary College, University of London. Assoc Editor of Proc Roy Soc B, J Theor Biol. Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Fellow 2012-2013. Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, Anatomical Society, Zoological Society of London and Royal Society of Biology. RCVS Share Jones Lecture in Anatomy (2011) and British Science Festival, Charles Darwin Award Lecture (2012). Honorary Research Associate, University College London. Fellow of the Year, Anatomical Society (2015).
I am a Principal researcher at The Natural History Museum, London and currently President of the World Association of Copepodologists (WAC).
Copepods are the dominant metazoan group in the marine plankton, are extremely abundant in marine and freshwater sediments and are parasites on virtually every phylum of animals from sponges to chordates.
The main theme of my research is the systematics and comparative anatomy of free-living and parasitic copepods, and the application of phylogenetic reconstruction to examine their evolution and ecological radiation, using morphology and molecular markers. Copepods are one of the best models to study fundamental phenomena like the evolution of parasitism and the marine-freshwater transition, and to test fundamental hypotheses such as the claim of oligomerization being the predominant mode of character transformation in Crustacea, and the enemy release hypothesis in invasion ecology.
I have also developed an interest in examining the relationships of lesser known and molecularly under sampled crustacean lineages such as the Mystacocarida, Pentastomida, Branchiura and Tantulocarida.
I am a marine scientist with eclectic interests including crustacean biology and fisheries, fisheries management generally, krill swimming behaviour, cleaner fish, coral reef systems, the relationship of marine commensals and their hosts and the eyes of shrimps. I work in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Hull where I am the Director of the MSc in Environmental Change Management and Monitoring. I am a fellow of the Marine Biological Association and a board member of the Science-Art foundation "Invisible Dust".