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Samuel Gascoigne | Research Fellow | University of Aberdeen



Brief Introduction


I am a population ecologist with broad interests in eco-evolutionary dynamics. Currently, I am particularly interested in (1) how populations respond to variable environments and (2) how population’s evolve to accommodate the impacts of changing environments. To address these topics, I have an interdisciplinary research program including the humble fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster) for more proximate (mechanistic) questions and structured population models (i.e., matrix population models and integral projection models) for more ultimate (evolutionary) questions.

I received my undergraduate degrees in Biology and Neuroscience from Lake Forest College. At LFC, I gained a passion for research at the intersection of ecology and evolution by working with Dr. Alexander Shingleton on the physiological mechanisms behind plastic morphological traits in Drosophila melanogaster and Dr. Flavia Barbosa on the structure of life-history trait hierarchies and covariances in Callosobruchus maculatus. After my undergrad, I began a DPhil in Biology at the University of Oxford advised by Dr. Roberto Salguero-Gómez and Dr. Irem Sepil where I researched the impacts of variable environments on population dynamics and life history evolution. In addition to my DPhil, I helped grow, curate and do outreach for the COMPADRE and COMADRE databases.

After my DPhil, I am excited to say I have started a research fellowship with Dr. Greta Bocedi at the University of Aberdeen, as well as research groups across Aarhus University and University of Helsinki, in the Novo Nordisk funded Centre for Ecological Genetics. Our work is focused on (1) quantifying the impact of genetic structure on extinction risk across arthropod species in Denmark and (2) building new theory linking life-history evolution, dispersal ecology and population genetics to better understand how and why populations do or don’t persist in a changing world.


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