Research

Sex changes everything, and our research group like to be there when it happens. We study the evolutionary and ecological consequences of sex including the evolution of mate choice, multiple mating, parental care, sexual dimorphism, sexual conflict, sex determination, genomic imprinting, the Y chromosome, and inbreeding. We are especially interested in the life history and quantitative genetic consequences of sex-dependent selection, including the evolution of sex differences in aging, diet and obesity.

We are looking for students and postdoctoral fellows to join our research group. Ours is a friendly, cooperative and varied research group. We work together on ambitious and creative projects and seek to publish our work in the best possible journals*.

We are also on the lookout for subjects to participate in our experiments on human choice and what people find attractive. Sign up here.

• Some current and recent research topics

• The interactions between evolution and economics
• The role of sexual conflict and sexual selection in aging
• Developmental plasticity in relation to demography and environmental conditions
• Reasons for sex differences in aging, obesity and early death
• Bioenergetics of aging (with Bill Ballard)
• The purpose of rock ‘n’ roll
• The relationships between diet, reproductive effort and senescence
• Using selection analysis and artificial evolution to understand the evolution of human body shape
• The maintenance of within-population in variation in sexual ornaments
• The effect of sexual selection on the degree of sex-linkage of ornamental traits,
• The evolution of the Y-chromosome,
• Within-population variation in female mate choice behaviour and mating preferences,
• The roles of resource acquisition and allocation in male sexual signalling and the life-history tradeoffs involved
• The genetic basis of inbreeding depression
• The evolution of inbreeding avoidance
• The genetic benefits of mate choice and polyandry
• Evolution or heavy metal tolerance in marine invertebrates (with Emma Johnston
• Selection on spiders in the wild
• The relationship between sexual selection, sexual conflict and extinction risk
• The analysis and interpretation of nonlinear selection.