The University of Edinburgh

joao alpedrinha

Social evolution in polyembryonic wasps

Joao is interested in social evolution and its application to organisms in defined ecological contexts.

Joao took his undergraduate Biology degree at the University of Lisbon. He did his honours project at ISPA with Rui Oliveira and David Goncalves as supervisors, working on the behavioral endocrinology of Salaria pavo, a fish with alternative reproductive tactics.

After he was offered a Portuguese short term IEFP grant and joined Franciso Dionisio’s lab at IGC, working on experimental evolution and social behaviour in bacteria.

His experience working in bacteria social biology and fish behavioural ecology had a profound effect on the way he now looks at biology. The outcome is a keen interest in evolutionary biology, particularly social evolution theory.

In order to develop his understanding of mathematical modelling, Joao joined IGC’s PhD program in computational biology for an intensive one year of classes on mathematical and computational approaches.

Joao is currently doing his PhD at the University of Edinburgh, under the supervision of Stuart West and Andy Gardner. He is currently working on the social evolution of polyembryonic wasps, modelling the development of soldier and other strategies under different ecological contexts.