JOSHUA BRIAN
Academic History
2021 - present Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Geography, King's College London
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2018 - 2021 PhD, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge
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2016 - 2018 Master of Science (First Class Honours), School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington
2012 - 2015 Bachelor of Science (Marine Biology and Ecology & Biodiversity), Victoria University of Wellington
2012 - 2015 Bachelor of Arts (Classical Studies and Statistics), Victoria University of Wellington
Awards and Funding
2023 King's College London: Funds to support undergraduate summer research fellow (Brian and Perez-Navarro: £1000)
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2022 King's College London Strategic Fund: R workshop development and execution (Perez-Navarro and Brian: £1,445)
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2020 CCI Collaborative Fund for Conservation, Cambridge Conservation Initiative: Defining Destructive Fishing (Steadman and six others including Brian: £65,000)
2020 Hitchcock Award, Department of Zoology (£500)
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2018 Woolf Fisher Scholarship (£150,000)
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2016 William Georgetti Scholarship (£10,000)
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2016 Alison Morton Scholarship in Ecology and Marine Biology (£1,500)
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2016 Victoria Graduate Award (£2,500)
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2016 Dr. F. G. Maskell Prize (non-monetary; prize for top undergraduate in the School of Biological Sciences)
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2014 Victoria University Summer Scholarship (£3,000)
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2014 Ministry of Primary Industries Undergraduate Scholarship in Quantitative Marine Biology (£2,500)
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2013 Rankine Brown Prize in Classical Studies (non-monetary; top undergraduate student in Ancient Greek or Latin)
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2012 Victoria Excellence Scholarship (£5,000)
Conference Talks and Presentations
2024 Ecology Group Seminar Series, University of Konstanz, Germany
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"Linking the enemy release hypothesis with performance of invasive plants"
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2024 Department of Biology Seminar Series, University of Neuchatel, Switzerland (Invited Talk)
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"Parasites in biodiversity conservation"
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2023 British Ecology Society (BES) Annual Meeting, Belfast, UK
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"Aboveground enemy release increases grassland seedling survival"
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2023 Centre for Invasion Biology Seminar Series, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
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"Linking the enemy release hypothesis with performance of invasive plants"
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2023 ESA Annual Meeting, Portland, USA
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"Aboveground enemy release increases grassland seedling survival"
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2022 NeoBiota, Tartu, Estonia
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"A process-driven reframing of the enemy release hypothesis in space and time"
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2022 Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve Symposium, Minnesota, USA
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"Interrogating the mechanisms and impacts of species-specific enemy release"
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2021 British Ecology Society (BES) Annual Meeting, Liverpool, UK
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"Parasitism dramatically alters the ecosystem services provided by freshwater mussels"
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2021 Euromal, Prague, Czech Republic
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"Parasite communities in freshwater mussels: what we know and what we still need to learn"
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2021 Freshwater Mollusk Conservation Society Symposium (virtual)​
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"The population-level consequences of parasitism in freshwater mussels: field data and a conceptual hypothesis"
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2020 British Ecological Society Quantitative Ecology Conference (virtual)
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"When abundance data and presence-absence data conflict: shedding new light on parasite communities"
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Winner (joint): Best Talk, Disease Ecology session
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2020 Trinity College Graduate Seminar Series, Cambridge, UK
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"Why a freshwater mussel is like a flavourless cake: Using mussels as a model system in parasite community ecology"
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2020 University of Cambridge Zoology Seminar Series, Cambridge, UK
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"Why a freshwater mussel is like a flavourless cake: Using mussels as a model system in parasite community ecology"
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2019 Bangor University Endeavour Society, Bangor, UK (Invited Talk)
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"Coral symbiont diversity and hybridisation: can reefs survive a warming climate?"
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2019 Trinity Forum, Cambridge, UK
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"This mite get gross: Parasitism in freshwater mussels"
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Winner: Best Turbo Talk
Teaching
2024 Seminar Lead, Geography in Action module, King's College London
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2023 Kings Undergraduate Research Fellowship Mentor, King's College London
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Project title: "Addressing the prevalence of poorly defined spatial scales in ecology and its consequences"
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2022 Independent project mentor, Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, University of Minnesota
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Project title: "The effect of succession and plant community composition on enemy damage"
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2020 - 2021 Supervisor, 1st year Natural Sciences Tripos (Mathematical Biology), University of Cambridge
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2019 - 2020 Co-supervisor, 3rd year Natural Sciences Tripos (Research Project), University of Cambridge
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Project title: "Population-level effects of parasitism on a freshwater ecosystem engineer, the unionid mussel Anodonta anatina" (see published paper here!)
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2018 Lead Demonstrator, 2nd year Animal Biology, Victoria University of Wellington
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2017 - 2018 Demonstrator, 3rd year Marine Biology, Victoria University of Wellington
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2014 - 2018 Demonstrator, 1st and 2nd year Animal Biology, Plant Biology, Cell Biology, Victoria University of Wellington
Academic Service
2019 - present Peer reviewer (* indicates multiple papers reviewed at the journal)
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Ecology Letters
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Ecology*
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Journal of Ecology*
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Journal of Animal Ecology
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Journal of Applied Ecology
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New Phytologist
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Science of the Total Environment
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Oecologia
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Biological Invasions*
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Parasitology*
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Animal Behaviour
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PloS One
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Ecological Entomology
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PeerJ*
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Biotropica
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Invertebrate Survival Journal
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Plant Ecology and Diversity
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2021 - present Postdoctoral Representative, Department of Geography, King's College London
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2023 Judge, 3-Minute Thesis Competition, Faculty of Natural, Mathematical and Engineering Science heats, King's College London
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2019 - 2020 Sports Officer, Trinity College BA Society, University of Cambridge
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2018 - 2019 First Year Representative, Trinity College BA Society, University of Cambridge
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2016 Vice-President, Postgraduate Students Association, Victoria University of Wellington
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2015 - 2016 Student Representative, Human Ethics Committee, Victoria University of Wellington
Public Outreach
2023 The Linnean Society of London (Invited Talk: Lunchtime Seminar Series)
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"Parasites in biodiversity conservation: friend or foe?" (related paper can be found here)
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2022 Pint of Science, The Deveraux pub, London, UK
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"Invasive species flex their mussels"
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2021 Naked Scientists podcast