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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 Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve Symposium, Minnesota, USA

  • "Plants, parasites and their particulars: Linking traits with community function"

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2024 Department of Ecology and Evolution Seminar Series, University of Sussex, UK

  • “Herbivores and pathogens in biological invasions: How much do we not know?”

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2024 Ecology Group Seminar Series, University of Konstanz, Germany 

  • "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)

  • "Parasites in biodiversity conservation"

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2023 British Ecology Society (BES) Annual Meeting, Belfast, UK

  • "Aboveground enemy release increases grassland seedling survival"

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2023 Centre for Invasion Biology Seminar Series, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa

  • "Linking the enemy release hypothesis with performance of invasive plants"

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2023 ESA Annual Meeting, Portland, USA

  • "Aboveground enemy release increases grassland seedling survival"

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2022 NeoBiota, Tartu, Estonia

  • "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

  • "Interrogating the mechanisms and impacts of species-specific enemy release"

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2021 British Ecology Society (BES) Annual Meeting, Liverpool, UK

  • "Parasitism dramatically alters the ecosystem services provided by freshwater mussels"

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2021 Euromal, Prague, Czech Republic

  • "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)​

  • "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)

  • "When abundance data and presence-absence data conflict: shedding new light on parasite communities"

  • Winner (joint): Best Talk, Disease Ecology session

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2020 Trinity College Graduate Seminar Series, Cambridge, UK

  • "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

  • "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)

  • "Coral symbiont diversity and hybridisation: can reefs survive a warming climate?"

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2019 Trinity Forum, Cambridge, UK

  • "This mite get gross: Parasitism in freshwater mussels"

  • Winner: Best Turbo Talk

Teaching

2024 Independent project mentor, Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, University of Minnesota

  • Project title: "It’s been bugging us: What are the effects of human disturbance and grassland succession on insect community diversity?"

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2024 Seminar Lead, Geography in Action module, King's College London

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2023 - 2024 Guest Lecturer, ‘Environmental Science for Sustainability’ Masters Course, Department of Geography, King’s College London

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2023 Kings Undergraduate Research Fellowship Mentor, King's College London

  • 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

  • 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

  • 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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2016 - 2018 Marker and tutor, 1st and 2nd year Statistics, 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)

  • Ecology Letters*

  • Ecology*

  • Journal of Ecology*

  • Journal of Animal Ecology

  • Journal of Applied Ecology

  • New Phytologist

  • Science of the Total Environment

  • Oecologia

  • Biological Invasions*

  • Parasitology*

  • Ecology and Evolution

  • Behavioral Ecology

  • Animal Behaviour

  • PloS One

  • Aquatic Botany

  • Ecological Entomology

  • PeerJ*

  • Biotropica

  • Invertebrate Survival Journal

  • 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)

  • "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

  • "Invasive species flex their mussels"

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2021 Naked Scientists podcast 

  • Interview here (related paper can be found here)

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