Research Group:

A. Rus Hoelzel – Group head; Head of Ecology research section; Professor of Molecular Ecology.  Population and evolutionary genetics, behavioural ecology, molecular ecology and conservation genetics with an emphasis on marine species.

Vittoria Elliot - (PhD student) Male mediated gene flow and the development of Y-markers in marine mammals.

Karis Baker (PhD student) - Population genetics of ancient and modern roe deer; testing theories about the impact of reintroductions on diversity and fitness

George Gkafas (PhD student) - Pathogen load and genetic diversity in delphinid cetaceans.

Iris Segura (PhD student) - Fine scale population genetics of delphinid species in the Gulf of California.

Andre Moura (PhD student) - Fine scale population genetics of delphinid species along the coast of Portugal.

Rocio Loizaga de Castro (PhD student) - Population genetics of dusky dolphins in Argentina.

Linus Flink (PhD student) - Ancient DNA of pigs—investigating the Neolithisation of Europe

Howard Gray - Molecular ecology of dolphin species in the Sea of Arabia

Ross Barnett (Postdoc) - Ancient DNA from the Orkney vole; inference about human migration in the neolithic from animal associates

Tom White (Postdoc) - Population genetics and phylogenetics of organisms at the mid-Atlantic ridge (ECOMAR)

Eulalia Banguera (Postdoc) - Phylogeography and phylogeny of dolphins in the genus Lagenorhynchus

Laura Corrigan (Postdoc) - Population genetics and morphometrics of Lake District Arctic charr

Malgorzata Pilot (Research Fellow) - Evolution of Baltic seal populations using ancient DNA.

Heather Fotherby - ECOMAR lab technician

 


Past members

Pia Anderwald - Feeding ecology and population genetics of the minke whale.

Mark DeBruyn (Postdoc) - Population genetics of a now extinct population of southern elephant seals from the Ross Sea, Antarctica

Stefania Gaspari – Phylogeography of striped dolphins and Risso’s dolphins; individual and kin association patterns within and among social groups in the Mediterranean.

Courtney Nichols – Population genetics of modern and historical cetacean populations in UK waters.

Demetrios Vassilakos – Evolution of immune system genes in cetacean species, with an emphasis on MHC class II genes.

Ada Natoli – Phylogeography and molecular ecology of bottlenose dolphin and common dolphin populations, world-wide.

Ana Töpf – Phylogenetics of ancient (Anglo Saxon) human populations in Britain in the context of European radiations.

Anna Fabiani – Southern elephant seal male reproductive variance on Falkland Island and phylogeography in the South Atlantic.

Nathalie Walker – Molecular ecology of invasive riparian plant species recently introduced into Britain.

Joelle Wentzel – Population genetics of two South African subspecies of antelope (bontebok and blesbok), and an investigation into the impact of a population bottleneck on the bontebok.

Stephan Park – Evolution of immune system (Class II MHC, DQB )genes in Arctocephalus pinniped species.

Dan Engelhaupt – Phylogeography, kin associations and molecular ecology of sperm whales, world-wide.

Rebecca Lewis – Feeding ecology of grey seals and southern elephant seals using stable isotope markers.

Carlos de Luna Lopez – Role of genomic diversity and environmental stress in developmental stability of cetacean species.

Andy Foote - Temporal patterns in the production of vocal displays and the evolution of vocal repertoire in killer whales.

Fiona Hatchell – Genetic impact of a known bottleneck on a population of reindeer - modelling allelic loss and impacts on developmental stability.

Diletta Castellani - Local selection on marine mammal populations.

Mariano Coscarella - Molecular ecology of Commerson's dolphins in Argentina (CONICET funding).

David Faini - Lab technician

Colin Nicholson - Lab technician. 

Joanne Stamford - Lab technician

 


Current/ recent visitors

Teresa Moura - University of Lisbon, Portugal

Ana Pinela - University of Barcelona, Spain

Ana Garcia - ARGOS program trainee

Lucas Chalke - University of Pretoria, South Africa

Vongani Maboko - University of Pretoria, South Africa

Valentina Islas - Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico

Pedro J. Cordero - University of Castilla - La Mancha, Spain

Rob Fleischer – National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Institution, USA