Personal Chair
- About
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- Email Address
- justin.travis@abdn.ac.uk
- Telephone Number
- +44 (0)1224 274483
- Office Address
Room 407 Zoology Building
- School/Department
- School of Biological Sciences
Biography
2006 – Lecturer (from 2008, Senior lecturer, and from, 2013 Professor) in Ecological and Evolutionary Modellinf, University of Aberdeen.
2004 – 2006 Senior Scientific Officer, NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Banchory, UK
2001- 2004 University of St Andrews, UK. Research Fellow in the Centre for Conservation Science.
1999 -2001 University of Lund, Sweden, Research fellow within the Climate Impacts Group
Degrees: PhD 1999 Imperial College London. MSc 1996 University of York. BSc(hons)1994 University of York
Memberships and Affiliations
- Internal Memberships
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Advisor of Studies ( 2009 - ).
- External Memberships
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Full member of NERC Peer Review College ( 2011 - ).
Subject Editor for Oikos ( 2010 - ).
Associate Editor for BMC Ecology ( 2011 - ).
- Research
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Research Overview
Much of my research uses models to study the population and evolutionary dynamics of spatially structured populations. Key interests include (1) the evolutionary ecology and population genetics of range expansions, (2) incorporating greater realism into the dispersal process within spatial population models, (3) evolvability (including the causes and consequences of mutation rate) and (4) the evolutionary ecology of longevity. While most of my group's work focusses on using stochastic individual-based models, I am increasingly interested in how these can be combined both with modern statistical methods (including Bayesian approaches) and analytical approximations to gain greater insights and predictive capabilities.
Funding and Grants
Substantial Grants Awarded Since 2012:
2018-2022 NERC Research Grant, "Forecasting biodiversity losses in Wallacea from ecological and evolutionary patterns and processes". PI of international team. (£850,000)
2018-2022 BBSRC Studentship Grant, "Using artificial intelligence to improve the forecast for biodiversity under environmental change" (£99,000)
2017-2021 NERC Research Grant, “Linking demographic theory and data to forecast the dynamics of spatially-structured seasonally-mobile populations” (£650,000). Co-I responsible for developing mechanistic migration models.
2017-2019 Marie Curie International Fellowship (Є215,000) Scientist in charge for Dr Aurore Ponchon.
2015-2016 STFC Newton AgriTech (£350,000) Local PI responsible for systems modelling of fire risk in China.
2015-2017 Marie Curie International Fellowship (Є220,000). Scientist in Charge for Dr Job Aben.
2012-2014 Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship (Є190,000). Scientist in Charge for Dr Kamil Barton.
2012-2015 NERC Responsive, PI “Managing Landscapes for Biodiversity Under Climate Change” (£355,000)
- Teaching
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Teaching Responsibilities
Most of my teaching is at Masters level. In particular, I co-ordinate two modules, one on Population Ecology and one on Advanced Ecological Modelling. At undergraduate level, I contribute to several courses at both 3rd and 4th year, most substantially to 3rd year Population Ecology where I introduce ecological modelling.
Teaching Philosophy: I enjoy the challenge of making quantitative topics and programming accessible to as many students as possible, and this is the focus of most of my teaching. I believe that almost all students are capable of learning to program, and that many obtain considerable satisfaction from the realisation that they can master it. I am interested in employing active learning methods within quantitative courses that have traditionally relied heavily on often dry lectures. In my Masters teaching I have been using 'learning through teaching' methods where individuals are each guided in putting together material to teach their peers about a particular aspect of modeling. This is proving a very successful way of improving understanding and creates considerable enthusiasm.
- Publications
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A preliminary assessment of the contribution of nature reserves to biodiversity conservation in Great Britain
Animal Conservation, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 311-320Contributions to Journals: ArticlesLinking the coevolutionary and population dynamics of host-parasitoid interactions
Population Ecology, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 195-203Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/PL00011998
Dispersal functions and spatial models: expanding our dispersal toolbox
Ecology Letters, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 163-165Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1461-0248.2000.00141.x
The evolution of density-dependent dispersal
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences, vol. 266, no. 1431, pp. 1837-1842Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1999.0854
Habitat persistence, habitat availability and the evolution of dispersal
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences, vol. 266, no. 1420, pp. 723-728Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1999.0696
The evolution of dispersal in a metapopulation: a spatially explicit, individual-based model
Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. B, Biological Sciences, vol. 265, no. 1390, pp. 17-23Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.1998.0258