Research Fellow
Dyers Brae 20
tel. 01334 463738
fax.
mbm5@st-andrews.ac.uk
I am interested in how evolution works on generation-to-generation time scales. My work centres on phenotypic variation in natural populations. I investigate what the causes are of phenotypic variation, especially with respect to genetics, as the genetic variants underlying phenotypic differences among individuals are the raw material for evolutionary change. I am also interested in the consequences of phenotypic variation, especially with respect to fitness variation. When phenotypic variation causes fitness variation, natural selection occurs, which is the cause of adaptive evolution.
I apply cutting-edge statistical methodologies to study the selection and genetics of ecologically-important traits in natural populations. In addition to my primary focus on the empirical study of quantitative traits in natural populations, I do theoretical population genetic work, and sometimes focus on methodological development.
(source: symbiosis database)