Personal Chair
- About
-
- 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
-
Advisor of Studies ( 2009 - ).
- External Memberships
-
Full member of NERC Peer Review College ( 2011 - ).
Subject Editor for Oikos ( 2010 - ).
Associate Editor for BMC Ecology ( 2011 - ).
- Research
-
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
-
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
-
Page 3 of 17 Results 21 to 30 of 165
Spatially explicit models for decision-making in animal conservation and restoration
Ecography, vol. 2022, no. 4Contributions to Journals: ArticlesPredicting the influence of river network configuration, biological traits and habitat quality interactions on riverine fish invasions.
Diversity and Distributions, vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 257-270Contributions to Journals: ArticlesCoding for Life: Designing a platform for projecting and protecting global biodiversity
BioScience, vol. 72, no. 1, pp. 91-104Contributions to Journals: Articles- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biab127
- [OPEN ACCESS] http://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/2164/19809/1/Urban_etal_B_Coding_For_Life_AAM.pdf
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Editorial: Applications of Machine Learning to Evolutionary Ecology Data
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, vol. 9, 797319Contributions to Journals: Editorials- [ONLINE] DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.797319
- [ONLINE] View publication in Scopus
Similar at-sea behaviour but different habitat use between failed and successful breeding albatrosses
Marine Ecology Progress Series, vol. 678, pp. 183-196Contributions to Journals: ArticlesPredicting the outcomes of management strategies for controlling invasive river fishes using individual-based models
Journal of Applied Ecology, vol. 58, no. 11, pp. 2427-2440Contributions to Journals: ArticlesOrangutan movement and population dynamics across human-modified landscapes: implications of policy and management
Landscape Ecology, vol. 36, pp. 2957-2975Contributions to Journals: ArticlesRangeShiftR: an R package for individual-based simulation of spatial eco-evolutionary dynamics and species' responses to environmental changes
Ecography, vol. 44, no. 10, pp. 1443-1452Contributions to Journals: ArticlesRangeShifter 2.0: An extended and enhanced platform for modelling spatial eco-evolutionary dynamics and species’ responses to environmental changes
Ecography, vol. 44, no. 10, pp. 1453-1462Contributions to Journals: ArticlesAncient geological dynamics impact neutral biodiversity accumulation and are detectable in phylogenetic reconstructions
Global Ecology and Biogeography, vol. 38, no. 8, pp. 1633–1642Contributions to Journals: Articles