Dr Mike Webster (PI)
Mike is interested in the functions, mechanisms and evolution of group living in animals, taking in group organisation, social information transmission and social learning, resource competition and predator-prey interactions.
He completed his PhD at the University of Leicester in 2007 before moving to the University of St Andrews, where he joined the Laland Lab as a post-doc. Remaining in St Andrews, he is now a lecturer in the School of Biology.
Twitter | Contact | Google Scholar | LinkedIn
Dagmar der Weduwen (PhD student)
Dagmar is studying social learning and the potential for imitation in archerfish Toxotes sp. in regards to their hunting behaviours. Dagmar’s PhD is also supervised by Luke Rendell and Keith Sillar.
A. Li Veiros (PhD student)
Li Veiros is an EastBio-funded PhD student studying cooperation and predator inspection. Li’s PhD is co-supervised by Manon Schweinfurth.
Lab alumni
Adèle Dubosque (Research intern)
Adèle visited from the Engineering School in Agronomy, Agrocampus Ouest Rennes. For her internship, Adèle investigated social behaviour in hermit crabs. She is now back in Rennes, finishing her degree.
Leah Gray (MRes student)
For her MRes, Leah studied information transmission and collective alarm responses in grouping animals, with specific focus on false alarms. She conducted observational studies on flocks of oystercatchers and laboratory experiments using groups of sticklebacks. Leah is now doing a PhD on seabird ecology at the University of Aberdeen.
Dr Nick Jones (Postdoctoral researcher)
Nick recently completed his PhD where he investigated factors that affect learning and foraging behaviour in archerfish. He stayed on as a postdoc to investigate aspects of fish welfare, and the consequences of inter-individual differences in cognition. He is now an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the University of Bayreuth.
Edith Invernizzi (Postdoctoral researcher)
Edith is interested in the cues and mechanisms underpinning behaviour, from human to non-human animals. She ran a project extending the work started during her PhD (University of St Andrews) on the behavioural algorithm underlying self-organised collective nest construction in the ant genus Temnothorax. Edith is now working in industry.
Arantzazu Pagonabarraga Altisen
Arantzazu was a placement student from the University of Manchester studying the use of social cues by hermit crabs, performing experiments in the lab and in the field. She is now back in Manchester finishing her degree.
Annie Rowe
Annie was a placement student from the University of Manchester undertaking a year-long project. Annie compared how effective different laboratory measures of shoaling were at capturing this behaviour. She is now back in Manchester finishing her degree.
Karina Vanadzina (PhD student)
For her PhD, Karina used phylogenetic comparative methods to investigate the evolution of life history traits associated with parental care in ray-finned fishes and passerines. She also investigated nest camouflage in three-spined sticklebacks using imaging techniques. Karina’s PhD was also supervised by Catherine Sheard and Kevin Laland. Karina is now a postdoc at the University of Warsaw.
Dr Helen Spence-Jones (PhD student)
Helen is interested in the role of phenotypic plasticity in evolutionary dynamics. She uses the adaptive radiation of threespine stickleback into freshwater environments as a model system to examine the dynamics of multiple plastic traits under relaxed selection. Helen’s PhD was co-supervised by Kevin Laland. She is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany.
Anna Hills (placement student)
Anna was a placement student from the University of Manchester undertaking a year-long project. She investigated how sampling- and experimental-design decisions affect hermit crab activity and behaviour measured under standardised conditions. Anna is now studying for an MSc in Leeds.
Behaviour of Individuals and Groups 