Phd Researcher, University of Exeter

I received my BSc in Animal Behaviour from the University of Sheffield and an MSc in Ecology, Evolution & Conservation from Imperial College London. My research interests fall broadly within the realms of behavioural and population ecology and evolutionary biology. I am particularly interested in how variation among individuals influences the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of populations through, for example, dispersal or variation in disease susceptibility.

I’m currently in the final year of my NERC Industrial CASE PhD studentship (having started in 2014), investigating the genetic basis of variation in bovine tuberculosis (bTB) infection in badgers. Using data provided by the Animal and Plant Health Agency, from a long-term monitoring project at Woodchester Park (Gloucestershire, UK) I reconstructed a genetic pedigree which I am now using to understand the relative importance of genetic and environmental factor (e.g. maternal or social environment) in determining susceptibility to and progression of bTB using a quantitative genetic approach known as animal modelling.