Early Career Network Members

Join our early career network and link with other researchers in the Centre.

Our Research

Our ECR Network is a friendly, interdisciplinary community of PhD students, post-docs, research associates, assistants and fellows. We come from a range of academic backgrounds but all share an academic interest in environmental change and the consequences this has for ecosystems and society.

Our network provides ECRs with opportunities to expand both their peer support and academic networks. We organise both informal and formal events and workshops aimed at offering support and advice on different stages of career development. From social events to expand your network, to workshops on grant and fellowship writing, career events with colleagues from inside and outside academia. Or perhaps you have an idea about what else you might find useful? Let us know and we will try to help.

Emily Simmonds: I am a quantitative ecologist with an interest in understanding how biological systems are influenced by their environment. My work looks at forecasting how individuals and populations respond to weather and climatic changes. My approach focuses on methodological innovation and refinement, alongside ecological insight. I have a particular interest in improving how we quantify and communicate uncertainty.

Amelia Penny: I work in ecology and palaeontology, so it’s important to me to work in a community where cross-disciplinary research is encouraged. I completed my PhD at Edinburgh, so when I returned as a lecturer I knew I’d be joining a highly active research community with a vast range of interests, where I’d encounter new ideas and approaches on a regular basis.

Rowan Bancroft: I am a PhD student in the Pedersen lab group where I am investigating the impact of nutrition on infectious disease in wild wood mice populations. Environmental change not only affects the habitat of wild populations of mice, it also affects the resources available to them meaning altered behaviour which has a knock-on effect on their susceptibility and exposure to infection.

Hannes Becher: My research is concerned with genetic make-up of and natural selection in natural populations, which are fundamental to evolutionary adaptation.

Melissa Bedinger: My research applies human factors and socio-technical systems methods to model complex interactions between the technical, natural, and social. Currently I work on the Urban Systems Abstraction Hierarchy model to understand climate impacts on cities in the UK, but believe this can also be applied to e.g. the pandemic or the Global South .

Ivan Bialy: I focus on Interdisciplinary research that can help us reconcile human needs and biodiversity conservation in the face of agricultural expansion and other forms of environmental change.

Camy Beyts: My research looks at the causes of inter-individual variation in behaviour in both wild and lab animal populations, where I use amphibians as my study organism. I am interested in understanding why some individuals and species are able to withstand novel pressures brought on by anthropogenic disturbance and other forms of environmental change.

Molly Carlier: I work on host-pathogen interactions between the malaria parasite and human red blood cells. Although not directly related to environmental change, a changing climate means that the malaria vector will be increasing the area in which it can survive, and thereby affect more people which is of interest to my work.

Elliot Convery Fisher: I research ecosystem function and dynamics in tropical grassy biomes. This works involves understanding the regulating processes for these ecosystems and how they are changing through time.

Maggie Creed: I am an environmental engineer, currently working as a PDRA in the School of Geosciences as part of the Tomorrow’s Cities GCRF hub project. My research focuses primarily on understand water-sediment interactions, with an emphasis on fluvial flood hazards and flood risk. I am interested in how we can combine physical science and engineering expertise with social science and community engagement to develop effective, sustainable solutions for flood disaster mitigation

Daisy Crowson: Healthy forests have a fundamental role to play in our quest to balance the carbon budget, and yet our changing environment is making trees ever more vulnerable to pests and diseases. I study the evolution and ecology of tree diseases, using evolutionary and ecological genetics to answer questions in forest pathology.

Gergana Daskalova: I am a global change ecologist with a passion for biodiversity change, agro-ecology and quantitative syntheses. The overarching aim of my research is to determine what are the sources of the complex patterns of population and biodiversity change observed over time around the world. From forest cover change around the world to climate warming in the Arctic and more, I am investigating how and why Earth’s biota is changing across the Anthropocene.

Agata Delnicka: I am interested in ectoparasites and vector-borne diseases in multi-host and multi-vector systems - particularly, tick- and flea-borne parasites in rodents. I am interested in the patterns and drivers of infection and disease in wild-systems; understanding these will help us predict infection patterns in natural populations in our rapidly-changing environments

Pankaj Dhakad: My research is focused on generating high quality annotations of hundreds of Drosophila genomes and using this resource to estimate patterns of adaptive evoution of immunity-related genes across the family Drosophilidae. I believe this project is going to help in better understanding of role of ecology, parasites in driving adaption.

Mahmoud Eltholth: Risk analysis at the human, animal and environment interface, Antimicrobial use in livestock and the risk of antimicrobial resistance

Elisabeth Gabardiel: I work on mechanisms of antifungal resistance of yeast in the model organism S. pombe. Fungal infections are a major problem in agriculture and ineffective antifungal drug use is damaging to the environment. Better understanding of resistance against antifungal drugs can improve our methods of fighting pathogenic yeast, which could increase crop yields and decrease excessive use of crop sprays.

Christine Gaebel: My research focuses on the science-policy nexus of deep and open-ocean ecosystems, to investigate opportunities and barriers for operationalising evidence-based management of areas beyond national jurisdiction in a changing ocean.

Mariana García Criado: I am a macroecologist interested in plant biodiversity patterns across the globe, with a particular focus on the tundra biome. I am also interested in biodiversity conservation, the science/policy interface, data syntheses and open science practices.

John Godlee: I research how functional and floristic variation in dry tropical vegetation affects vegetation dynamics and carbon cycling.

Fiona Greco: I study parasite diversity and burden within a partially migratory seabird population. I am particularly interested in the role of environmental heterogeneity across discrete migratory locations and its potential impact upon parasitism and population fitness. Increasingly variable environmental conditions may play a significant role in driving subsequent host-parasite dynamics.

Emily Haley: My PhD research is focussed on investigating introgression of genetic material between species of the plant genus Antirrhinum (Snapdragons), and how this has allowed species to adapt to different environments.

Jessica Hall: I look at anthropogenic resources on the diseases of wild rodents. As humans encroach on wild habitats this is becoming more of an issue.

Sam Hillman: My research mostly involves leveraging machine learning to study the quantum fields which give rise to the fundamental forces and particles, although the techniques I am developing are applicable across a wide range of settings. Naturally, I am drawn to the physical aspects of environmental science, as well as the challenge of modelling physical and non-physical processes. I am particularly interested in scientifically rigorous, data-driven analysis of environmental policies.

Wu Huang: I develop method based on nuclear DNA to identify plant species. This is a key to understanding biodiversity and so managing change.

Diana Jerome: I study how climate change effects shrubs across the tundra-forest ecotone. I am interested in how shrub growth changes in response to temperature and precipitation, and how these responses differ in different ecosystems.

Nadia Jogee: I am a coral reef ecologist, I am particularly interested in how coral reefs respond to disturbance events, which are becoming more frequent due to climate change.

Anitha Kathik: I study transformational infrastructure for climate change conditions

Isabel Key: I study seagrass restoration in Scotland including climate change adaptation, and raising awareness of marine conservation

Declan King: We aim to characterise changes in brain structure in old age and investigate relationships between brain ageing and cognitive decline using a unique and extremely well-characterised model of healthy ageing (LBC 1936 cohort). Our hypothesis is that synaptic resilience in the form of robust synaptic numbers, structure and molecular composition underpins successful or healthy cognitive ageing.

Sarah Kline: My research focuses on understanding mobility and decision-making ecologies of young people as they relate to perceived and experienced climate change impacts.

Hannah Lemon: Ecology Within - looking at the gut microbiome of Soay sheep on St Kilda. This long term study monitors the sheep over their lifespan and takes into consideration environmental changes both on a micro and macroscopic scale and how these impact the lifespan, health and reproductive success of the sheep.

Xue Li: My work is about knowledge representation and its repairing. Data about environmental change can be formalised for reasoning so that rules can be minded and predictions can be made.

Simon Lilico: My PhD project looks at genome editing livestock to improve disease resistance or other environmental resilience traits. Using genome editing we can move traits between breeds or species, or create de novo allelic variants to meet a specific purpose.

Ilaria Lonero: My PhD project researches the role of phenology and range shifts in a long-term migratory bird, the Common Redstart, as adaptations to global warming. I will look whether Redstarts moving at higher latitudes, elevations, and cooler microclimates are able to match their breeding and nestlings requirements with the later and cooler spring of these environments. Then, I will assess whether this behaviour allows the species’ populations to flourish, thus suggesting potential for nestboxes and habitat management to support the species’ conservation under climate change.

Meng Lu: My PhD project looks at the hybridisation events in the British Flora and the determinants of genomic diversity in British native flowering plants. Hybridisation provides opportunities to form unique combination of phenotypes and that enables hybrids to thrive in a changing environment.

Kirsty MacPhie: I study variations in phenology and the match-mismatch hypothesis in the deciduous tree - caterpillar - blue tit study system. Climate warming has strong effects on the phenology of many biological events and is affecting synchronicity within trophic interactions. I’m looking at differences in the distribution of the caterpillar resource over time and how this affects the consequences of being asynchronous for breeding birds.

Daniel Maloney: I'm currently working on SARS-CoV-2, monitoring the changes in variants and lineages using genomic data.

Nicolò Margaritella: My research focuses on the development of new statistical methodology motivated by real problems. My areas of expertise include Bayesian statistics and functional data analysis and I am particularly interested in the analysis of complex spatio-temporal data and large-scale inference problems such as those arising in neuroscience, healthcare and environmental science

Alex Merrington: My research centres around the use of remote sensing to provide information for land managers via habitat mapping and peatland restoration.

Jazmín Mota: I work on sustainability for extractive industries, particularly for oil and gas. My research includes technical, economic, environmental and social evaluations. I consider that transdisciplinary research is key to address environmental and social challenges.

Martin Pullinger: I work on the demand side, looking at patterns of energy demand and the factors which shape them, for insights to support the decarbonisation of the energy system.

Joe Marsh-Rossney: My research mostly involves leveraging machine learning to study the quantum fields which give rise to the fundamental forces and particles, although the techniques I am developing are applicable across a wide range of settings. Naturally, I am drawn to the physical aspects of environmental science, as well as the challenge of modelling physical and non-physical processes. I am particularly interested in scientifically rigorous, data-driven analysis of environmental policies.

Dierdre McLean: I’m an empirical ecologist and evolutionary biologist using a range of experimental systems to understand the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of communities under stress. In particular, I am interested in how community structure shapes trait evolution in constituent species.

Hannah Ravenswater: My work examines how variation in seasonal life history influences the exposure and response to parasitism, using a population of European shags. Studying these effects is important if we are to begin to understand how predicted environmental shifts may impact on disease dynamics in wild populations.

Matthew Rees: I work on tropical forest ecology and the transitions from forests to savannas in Africa.

Hang Ruan: My research is interdisciplinary but mainly spanning around computational intelligence, wireless sensing and data analytics, which is directly relevant to environmental informatics, surveillance, detection as well as energy optimizations.

Alexandra Sadler: I am researching the sustainable agriculture transition in South India, looking in particular at how markets and economies are changing (or not) to accommodate a more sustainable form of food production, distribution and consumption. I am interested in sustainable agriculture within the context of climate change adaptation more generally, and work part-time for the Oxford University Economic Recovery Project, analysing climate change adaptation and resilience spending as part of COVID-19 economic recovery expenditures.

Joanna Sadler: Engineering novel chemo-biological systems to degrade and upcycle postconsumer plastic waste. I also study how microorganisms interact with plastic-derived small molecules in the environment.

Helena Scullion: I study insect-plant interactions in wild coffee plants, with the aim of finding traits to breed climate-tolerant, insect-resistant species.

Camille Simonet: The environmental change affects public health in numerous ways, with the amplification of existing threats and the emergence of new ones. Adapting to this requires innovative public health management strategies and efficient policies. I study the ecology and evolution of microbes using a combination of mathematics, statistics, bioinformatics, with the goal of using these evolutionary insights to better inform public health policy.

Claudia Steadman: My research involves using models to better understand the nitrogen cycle. I’m interested in the interactions and feedbacks between the nitrogen cycle and climate, and in particular, the exchange of nitrogen-containing compounds between the land and atmosphere, and the atmosphere and oceans.

Jiacheng Sun: My research focus on algae-based 3rd generation biofuel and biochar production and applications. Algal biofuel is a promising fossil fuel alternative in the future. Algal biochar is a potential carbon removal agent for climate mitigation.

Amy Sweeny: My research focusses on the drivers of host-parasite interactions. In particular, I am interested in how environmental change may influence host-associated communities such as parasites and the microbiome, and how these effects may influence disease epidemiology.

Elizabeth Telford: Savanna ecosystems cover a fifth of the Earth's land surface, they host a unique biodiversity and are changing rapidly via dramatic increases in tree cover. To date, > 90% of species identified as responsible for these increases in tree cover are from the legume family, where most of these species have an ability to transform atmospheric N into a plant useable form (known as N2-fixation). I am interested in understanding the role of nitrogen fixation in determining species range sizes, their dynamics and propensity to be species driving widespread savanna vegetation change.

Galina Toteva: I am investigating nitrous oxide emissions from forest soils in response to increased amounts of reactive nitrogen (in the form of ammonia). N2O has a high Global Warming Potential (GWP = 298) and as such can act as a driver of global change.

Rosie Townsend: I study the environmental determinants of pregnancy health with a focus on environmental sunlight exposure

Kai Wan: I am investigating the impact of extreme high and low temperatures on mortality risk in Scotland, both at present and projected burden under climate change. I am also exploring stakeholder perceptions on heat risk in Scotland and policy landscape.

Ruoyu Wang: My research is related to how to use big data and nature-based solutions to improve people’s well-being and reduce health inequalities.

Wanzhen Wanzhen: I am focusing on environmental effects on colour patterns and male-killer bacteria distribution of butterflies, as future environmental changes will impact on the survival of butterflies.

Hannah Young: My research focusses on climate change and variability and its impacts on people, particularly across sub-Saharan Africa. I am particularly interested in impacts on food security and how scientific information can inform decision-making.

This article was published on 2024-10-07