Why are there so many passerines? And other questions in macroecology & macroevolution.

​I am an evolutionary biologist interested in the heterogeneity of diversity across space and time. My research spans the fields of macroecology, macroevolution, and behavioural ecology, and though birds are my main study system, I've also worked with mammals, fish, spiders, and human languages.

I am currently (2019-present) a Research Associate at the University of Bristol, working with Michael Benton on tetrapod macroevolution.

I was previously (2017-2019) a Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews, working with Kevin Laland and Sue Healy on the evolution of -- among other things -- bird nests. Before that (2016-2017), I was based in the EXCD lab with Fiona Jordan at the University of Bristol, where I used modern phylogenetic comparative methods to study the evolution of human kinship systems. I did my PhD in Zoology (2012-2016) at the Edward Grey Institute, University of Oxford, supervised by Dr Joseph Tobias (now Imperial College London) and Prof Nathalie Seddon, investigating the global distribution of avian morphospace and researching the role of social processes in the evolution and maintenance of avian diversity.