Ecology and Evolution

Rebecca is a final year PhD student in the Department of Biology, University of York. Her research uses tools in microbiology and computational biology to investigate the microbes that live inside insects. She is particularly interested in how the microbes became captured by the insects, the games they play in order to survive, and how their relationships might change over millions of years.

Eleanor is a PhD student investigating invertebrate personality. In her spare time Eleanor is also a tropical expedition leader. In her talk, Eleanor will introduce the murky world of the trade in invertebrates. Keen to learn more about the trade, Eleanor recently teamed up with ecologist Laura Kor, and cameraman Chris Guggiari-Peel with a plan to study a high value, and enormous beetle: the Titan. Eleanor will talk about the challenges of searching for this beetle in the rainforests of French Guiana, as well as insights into the invertebrate trade.

Mathematics is simple, elegant and beautiful. Why does everything else in life have to be so complicated? From ecosystems to international finance, and from nuclear weapons to the internal clocks governing our toilet habits, everything seems a bit more complicated than it needs to be. A careful mixture of maths and imagination helps explain when complexity can be good. Jon Pitchford has a BSc and PhD in Maths, and has spent over 20 years misunderstanding biology and ecology in creative ways.