Current Members
Dr Susan Johnston (PI)
Susan is a Royal Society University Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer using genomics to understand evolutionary puzzles in natural populations. At present, her main interests are the evolution of recombination rate variation and understanding the genetic architecture of ongoing sexual conflict. She did her undergrad in St Andrews (UK), PhD in Sheffield (UK), and postdocs in Turku (Finland) and Edinburgh.
John McAuley (Darwin Trust PhD Student)
John is a PhD student investigating the causes and consequences of individual recombination rate variation in wild house sparrows in Norway. He did his BSc in Seattle (USA) and an MSc in Salford (UK).
Gina Henderson (NERC E4 PhD Student)
Gina is a PhD student investigating evolutionary genomics of immune responses in wild mammals. Previously, she did her BSc at Manchester (UK) and her MSc at Edinburgh.
Dr Cathrine Brekke (Postdoc)
Cathrine is a postdoc investigating questions related to heterochiasmy in birds and mammal populations. She did her PhD at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, investigating the genetic basis of recombination rates in pigs, cattle and salmon.
Anagha Ambalam Kandy (MSc Student)
Anagha is a an MSc Project student investigating selection on recombination rates in wild sheep using genomic prediction measures.
Associated Members
Katie Abson (NERC E4 PhD Student)
Katie is a PhD Student with Jarrod Hadfield. Her project is predicting adaptive potential from genomic data and its implications for conservation. Previously, she did her BSc at Manchester (UK) and her MSc at Edinburgh.
Former Members
Anna Hewett (NERC E4 PhD Student, 2019 – 2023)
Anna did her MSc project in our group looking at genomic signatures of intra-locus sexual conflict in the Soay sheep of St Kilda. Previously, she did her BSc at Cardiff (UK). She recently finished her PhD in Edinburgh mapping inbreeding depression in Red deer on Rum.
Dr Martin Stoffel (DFG Research Fellow, 2019 – 2022)
Martin was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow mapping inbreeding depression in Soay sheep. He completed his PhD at the University of Bielefeld (Germany). His project in the lab was in collaboration with Prof. Josephine Pemberton.
Dr Lucy Peters (NERC E3 PhD Student, 2017 – 2021)
Lucy completed her PhD in 2021 on the genetic architecture of antler morphology and signatures of sexual conflict in Red deer on Rum. She did her BSc in Glasgow (UK) and was a visiting student at Bielefeld (Germany) was a postdoc with Bertrand Servin (INRAE Occitanie). She’s now a postdoc at the Technical University of Munich.
Dr Alexandra Sparks (MRC PhD Student, 2013 – 2017) co-supervised with Prof. Dan Nussey
Alex completed her PhD on evolutionary genetics of helminth-specific immune responses in wild Soay sheep in 2017. She was a postdoc with Dr Hannah Dugdale at the University of Leeds, and is now a postdoc with Prof Jon Slate at the University of Sheffield.
Harry Colville (BSc Hons Project 2024)
Oliwia Makulec (BSc Hons Project 2024)
Adrianne Shemilt (BSc Hons Project 2023)
Ross Donaldson (BSc Hons Project 2023)
Elizabeth Wimborne (BSc Project 2021) – Now a PhD student at the University of Southampton
Leanne Anderson (BSc Project 2021)
Shaoya An (MSc Project 2020)
Katie McCabe (BSc Hons Project 2020)
Sarah Dobson (BSc Hons Project 2020) – Now a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh
Gemma Homer (BSc Hons Project 2019)
Lizzie Bowen-West (BSc Hons Project 2019)
Johnston Lab 