JOSHUA BRIAN
Academic History
2026 - Present: Research Fellow, Department of Geography, King's College London
2021 - 2026 Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Geography, King's College London
2018 - 2021 PhD, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge
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)
2022 King's College London Strategic Fund: R workshop development and execution (Perez-Navarro and Brian: £1,445)
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)
2018 Woolf Fisher Scholarship (£150,000)
2016 William Georgetti Scholarship (£10,000)
2016 Alison Morton Scholarship in Ecology and Marine Biology (£1,500)
2016 Victoria Graduate Award (£2,500)
2016 Dr. F. G. Maskell Prize (non-monetary; prize for top undergraduate in the School of Biological Sciences)
2014 Victoria University Summer Scholarship (£3,000)
2014 Ministry of Primary Industries Undergraduate Scholarship in Quantitative Marine Biology (£2,500)
2013 Rankine Brown Prize in Classical Studies (non-monetary; top undergraduate student in Ancient Greek or Latin)
2012 Victoria Excellence Scholarship (£5,000)
Conference Talks and Presentations
2025 British Ecology Society (BES) Annual Meeting, Edinburgh, UK
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"Plants from regions of high phylogenetic diversity have higher invasion success, particularly in undisturbed communities"
2025 Centre for Ecology & Evolution Autumn Mixer, London, UK
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"Plants from regions of high phylogenetic diversity have higher invasion success, particularly in undisturbed communities"
2025 Ecology and Management of Alien Plant Invasions (EMAPI), Lincoln, New Zealand
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"Plants from regions of high phylogenetic diversity have higher invasion success, particularly in undisturbed communities"
2024 British Ecology Society (BES) Annual Meeting, Liverpool, UK
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"Intraspecific chemical composition of plants at local scales is driven by neighbours, not consumers"
2024 Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve Symposium, Minnesota, USA
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"Plants, parasites and their particulars: Linking traits with community function"
2024 Department of Ecology and Evolution Seminar Series, University of Sussex, UK
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“Herbivores and pathogens in biological invasions: How much do we not know?”
2024 Ecology Group Seminar Series, University of Konstanz, Germany
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"Linking the enemy release hypothesis with performance of invasive plants"
2024 Department of Biology Seminar Series, University of Neuchatel, Switzerland (Invited Talk)
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"Parasites in biodiversity conservation"
2023 British Ecology Society (BES) Annual Meeting, Belfast, UK
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"Aboveground enemy release increases grassland seedling survival"
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"
2023 ESA Annual Meeting, Portland, USA
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"Aboveground enemy release increases grassland seedling survival"
2022 NeoBiota, Tartu, Estonia
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"A process-driven reframing of the enemy release hypothesis in space and time"
2022 Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve Symposium, Minnesota, USA
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"Interrogating the mechanisms and impacts of species-specific enemy release"
2021 British Ecology Society (BES) Annual Meeting, Liverpool, UK
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"Parasitism dramatically alters the ecosystem services provided by freshwater mussels"
2021 Euromal, Prague, Czech Republic
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"Parasite communities in freshwater mussels: what we know and what we still need to learn"
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"
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
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"
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"
2019 Bangor University Endeavour Society, Bangor, UK (Invited Talk)
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"Coral symbiont diversity and hybridisation: can reefs survive a warming climate?"
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, 2026 Seminar Lead, Geography in Action module, King's College London
2023 - 2025 Guest Lecturer, ‘Environmental Science for Sustainability’ Masters Course, Department of Geography, King’s College London
2024 - 2025 Tutor, Research Design and Project Methods Course, Department of Geography MA/MSc program, King's College London
2024 Independent project mentor, Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, University of Minnesota
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Project title: "It’s been bugging us: What are the effects of human disturbance and grassland succession on insect community diversity?"
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" (see published paper here!)
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"
2020 - 2021 Supervisor, 1st year Natural Sciences Tripos (Mathematical Biology), University of Cambridge
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!)
2018 Lead Demonstrator, 2nd year Animal Biology, Victoria University of Wellington
2017 - 2018 Demonstrator, 3rd year Marine Biology, Victoria University of Wellington
2016 - 2018 Marker and tutor, 1st and 2nd year Statistics, Victoria University of Wellington
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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Proceedings of the Royal Society B
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Ecography
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Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B
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Neobiota
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Oecologia
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Oikos
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Biological Invasions*
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Parasitology*
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Journal of Vegetation Science
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Ecology and Evolution
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Behavioral Ecology
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Animal Behaviour
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Global Ecology and Conservation
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PloS One
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Aquatic Botany
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Ecological Entomology
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PeerJ*
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Biotropica
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Science of the Total Environment
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Invertebrate Survival Journal
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Plant Ecology and Diversity
2021 - 2025 Postdoctoral Representative, Department of Geography, King's College London
2024 Talk judge, British Ecological Society (BES) Annual Meeting
2023 Session chair, British Ecological Society (BES) Annual Meeting (Parasites, pathogens and disease session)
2023 Judge, 3-Minute Thesis Competition, Faculty of Natural, Mathematical and Engineering Science heats, King's College London
2019 - 2020 Sports Officer, Trinity College BA Society, University of Cambridge
2018 - 2019 First Year Representative, Trinity College BA Society, University of Cambridge
2016 Vice-President, Postgraduate Students Association, Victoria University of Wellington
2015 - 2016 Student Representative, Human Ethics Committee, Victoria University of Wellington
Public Outreach
2025 Lunch with a Scientist public outreach program, University of Minnesota
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"Invading without an enemy: The role of herbivores and pathogens in the spread of non-native plants"
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)
2022 Pint of Science, The Deveraux pub, London, UK
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"Invasive species flex their mussels"
2021 Naked Scientists podcast