Jeremy Field PhD

Senior Lecturer

Jeremy Field's web page

jeremy.field@ucl.ac.uk
tel: (+44)-(0)20-7679-7427
fax: (+44)-(0)20-7679-5052

My research group focusses on the behavioural and evolutionary ecology of social systems, using wasps and bees as model systems. I am particularly interested in the fundamental question of how helping behaviour evolves and is maintained. I am also interested in social plasticity; intra-group conflict; social parasitism; and the evolution of parental care strategies. Currently, our work involves a combination of large-scale manipulative field experiments in natural environments; modelling; and molecular work: microsatellite-based studies to estimate genetic relatedness and assign offspring to parents. Our study organisms include eusocial hover wasps (Liostenogaster, Parischnogaster: Malaysia); eusocial paper-wasps (Polistes: Spain), sweat bees (Halictinae: UK) and non-social digger wasps (UK).

References

Field, J.P., Shreeves, G., Sumner, S. & Casiraghi, M. (2000). Insurance-based advantage to helpers in a tropical hover wasp. Nature 404:869-871.

Cant, M.A. & Field, J.P. (2001). Helping effort and future fitness in cooperative animal societies. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B 268: 1959-1964.

Field, J. & Brace, S. (2004). Pre-social benefits of extended parental care. Nature 428: 650-652.

Academic Career

1995 - present
Department of Biology, University College London

1994- 1995
Dept. Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA

1991- 1993
NERC Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, UK

1989- 1990
NERC Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biology, University of York, U.K

1987- 1989
SERC Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Biology, Imperial College at Silwood Park, UK

1987
Ph.D (Zoology) University of Cambridge, UK
1982
BA (Zoology) University of Cambridge, UK