I am an evolutionary biologist interested in eco-evolutionary dynamics of species interactions in multi-trophic communities. I conduct my research by the way of experimental evolution in laboratory microcosms with various microbes including bacteria, bacteriophages and protists. I am specifically interested in understanding the interplay between environment and ecology in determining the evolution of species interactions and how rapid adaptation might affect the composition, stability and ecosystem functioning of complex microbial communities. Studying adaptation in real time Experimental evolution is study of evolution in real time. The method involves culturing replicate populations of study species, such as microbes, in defined laboratory environments for hundreds or thousands of generations. The experimenter will control the environmental conditions but does not directly impose the selection. Instead, selection results from the “struggle for existence” between individuals within each population, and thus, selection is natural. I use various species of bacteria, protists and phages as my study species. These microorganisms have inherently large population sizes and short generation times that favour rapid evolution. Species can be further cryopreserved in suspended animation, which allows direct comparisons between evolved, ancestral and control populations. Many microorganisms have relatively simple and well-understood genomes, which allow both genetic manipulation and identification of the genetic targets for selection. Current projects Eco-evolutionary dynamics of predator-prey and host-parasite interactions in complex communities Microbial community responses to environmental change Cascading effects of antibiotics in multi-trophic microbial communities Trophic interactions and the maintenance of within-species cooperation Phage therapy in clinical and agricultural contexts
I teach about international business and organizational change. My core research interests centre on the evolution of business and financial institutions, the development of international business, corporate governance, and political economy. Another strand of my research looks at the impact of socially-constructed identities on firms. An additional research area is the relationship between business and the natural environment. Empirically, my research is on firms that have operated in the North Atlantic region and in East Asia. My research is informed by diverse theories, including concepts taken from strategic management, behavioural economics, post-colonial theory, International Political Economy, and Austrian economics. My preferred research methods are qualitative and include the use of corporate archives. My first book, which was published in 2008, was on the role of British financiers in the genesis of the Canadian constitution. This book was an outgrowth of my PhD work, which was conducted at a Canadian university. My second book was a co-edited collection on the history of entrepreneurship in Canada. My third book, which was published in 2014, is an edited collection on globalization and Canadian business that aimed to use to historical evidence to test various claims about optimum policy mix for nations seeking to manage their relationship to the global economy. My more recent research has included articles on the history of Unilever and HSBC, race relations within multinational firms, the evolution of cashless payment technologies in Hong Kong, and the relationship between corporate governance and contemporary debates about economic inequality. I have also published articles and book chapters on topics such as the taxation, fisheries regulation, ethnicity and international capital flows, race and business, entrepreneurship, and banking regulation history. I am currently editing a book on the impact of the First World War on the strategies of international firms. It will be published by Routledge in early 2016.
Joseph P Laycock is an assistant professor of religious studies at Texas State University. He teaches courses on world religions, religion in America, new religious movements, and the intersection of religion and popular culture. He is the author of several books including Dangerous Games: What the Moral Panic Over Role-Playing Games Says About Play, Religion, and Imagined Worlds (University of California Press, 2015) and The Seer of Bayside: Veronica Lueken and the Struggle to Define Catholicism (Oxford University Press, 2014). He is also a blogger for Religion Dispatches.
Peter Coveney holds a Chair in Physical Chemistry and is Director of the Centre for Computational Science, based in the Department of Chemistry. He is an Honorary Professor of Computer Science at UCL and Professor Adjunct at Yale University. His research focuses on many different areas, from molecular and mesoscale fluid dynamics simulations to multiscale materials modelling and computational biomedicine, all exploiting high performance computational techniques. He is co-organiser (with Jean Pierre Boon and Sauro Succi) of the Solvay Symposium on Multiscale Modelling at the Physics, Chemistry and Biology Interface, which is taking place at the Free University of Brussels in Brussels, Belgium, 19-21 April 2016. His paper to be presented at the conference, entitled "Big Data Needs Big Theory Too", is co-authored with Prof Ed Dougherty and Dr Roger Highfield.
Christos Kotsogiannis is Professor of Economics at the University of Exeter and a Research Fellow at CESifo, Germany. He was born in Athens and studied for his Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Essex. His research is primarily in the field of public economics, political economics, environmental economics and international trade, with publications in journals such as,American Economic Review, Journal of International Economics, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Public Economic Theory,International Tax and Public Finance, Journal of Urban Economics and Economics Letters. He has been the guest co-editor for a special issue on climate change issues for the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Environmental and Resource Economics and International Tax and Public Finance. He is currently on the editorial board of the Journal of Tax Administration and he is one of the three editors of CESifo Economic Studies. Kotsogiannis has been a visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund, and a consultant for the World Bank on issues of fuel subsidies. He was Head of the Economics Department at University of Exeter Business School from 2011-2014 and held a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship in 2009-2011. In 2015 Kotsogiannis was awarded the Copernicus International Fellowship from the University IUSS-Ferrara 1391.
Peter Manning was awarded his Doctorate of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at UTS in 2014. He was Senior Lecturer in Journalism at Monash University (2009-2012) and at UTS (2000-2009). He has also taught at the University of Sydney and Qatar University. Prior to teaching he was the Head of News and Current Affairs at the Seven Network (1996-2000), and Head of TV News and Current Affairs at the ABC (1989-1993). In the latter role, he began the ABC’s very successful website (abc.net.au) and founded “Lateline”, “Foreign Correspondent” and “Landline”. In the 1980s he was a field producer and then Executive Producer of “Four Corners”, winning many awards for its investigative journalism. He began his career at Fairfax and has been a reporter in print, online, radio and television. He is the author of three books: “Us and Them: Media, Muslims and the Middle East” (Random House, 2006), now an e-book, “Dog Whistle Politics and Journalism” (ACIJ, 2004) and “Green Bans” (ACF, 1975). His PhD thesis is also currently being considered for publication. He has written many chapters and papers for national and international peer-reviewed journals. He is a public commentator in various forums on media matters. He has his own blog (www.us-and-them.com.au) and his own Facebook site.
