Biography
I am a senior lecturer at the Department of Biological and Medical Science at the Oxford Brookes University. I am also associated with Centre for Functional Genomics at Brookes, serving as its first scientific director from 2019-2021. I received a PhD in Genetics from Oxford Brookes University in 2013.
I am an evolutionary biologist studying the genetics and genomics of ecology, evolution, development and conservation. I received an Alexander von Humboldt Post-doctoral research fellowship in 2014. I use genomic and genetic tools to research the biology and conservation of invertebrates (mostly 🦋 these days).
I teach courses at various levels including undergraduate and postgraduate. My teaching includes data science, statistical inference, bioinformatics and reproducibility (particularly literate programming and version control/colloboration) in biology and the environmental sciences - concepts and approaches that are crucial to my own research. I also teach courses on reproducibility and programming and data science in R aimed at researchers.
Experience
Oxford Brookes University | Oxford, UK
Senior Lecturer in Genetics and Genomics | 2019–Current
Lecturer in Genetics and Genomics | 2015-2019
Scientific Director of the Centre for Functional Genomics) | 2019-2021Friedrich Mesicher Laboratory at the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology | Tuebingen, Germany
Postdoctoral Researcher| 2013–2015Stony Brook University | Stony Brook, NY, USA
Research Assisant on the Deep Scaly project | 2005–2007
Awards and Grants
NERC-NBAF | 2021
Using genomics to explore a potential case of Wolbachia-mediated feminization in the Polyommatus icarus butterflyAlexander von Humboldt Post-doctoral research fellowship | 2014-2016
Education
Oxford Brookes University | Oxford, UK
PhD in Genetics | 2010–2013Iowa State University | Ames, IA, USA
MSc in Ecology, Evolution and Organismal Biology | 2003–2005Drake University | Des Moines, IA, USA
BSc in Biology | 1999-2003