Duncan Greig

Duncan graduated in 1995 with a first-class BSc in Biology, earning a place on the Dean’s List and the Heaysman Prize for his final-year project. His research focuses on experimental evolution—observing populations of living organisms as they evolve in real time. Using microbes, particularly yeast (the same organism used in bread and wine production), he investigates how evolutionary processes unfold over days rather than millennia. By engineering yeast genes, Duncan tests whether evolution proceeds as theory predicts, exploring fundamental questions about species formation and adaptation.

Duncan is passionate about the creative aspects of science and brings this to his teaching, encouraging students to develop hypotheses and test them with novel experiments. He draws parallels between scientific and artistic practice, both striving to interpret and represent the world. He actively develops interdisciplinary relationships between art and science, co-supervising UCL art students and serving as Scientist in Residence (2023–2025) at the Slade School of Fine Art.

I came to UCL by accident. At school, I did A-level art and really wanted to go to art school, but my parents persuaded me to choose a career that offered a reliable income. So I enrolled at the Royal Veterinary College, thinking being a vet would be a nice job. It probably would have been, but I didn’t enjoy the training at all—it was very old-fashioned rote learning of anatomy and animal diseases, which I was terrible at.

What I was interested in was genetics, molecular biology, and evolution. Luckily, I was able to transfer to UCL Biology, and from the moment I arrived, I loved it. The flexibility of the optional modules meant I could explore a wide range of topics, and my lecturers were amazing (some of them are now my colleagues!). 

I remember enjoying the library—partly because it had computers and I was an early internet geek, and partly because I loved using the ISI citation index to track down papers. Back then, those papers, and indeed the Index itself, were still literally made of paper! I was often there until closing time at 11 pm, pulling bound journals from the stacks or photocopying articles to read later. It sounds solitary, but I had a brilliant social life too, based around ULU, Camden Palace, and the occasional pub when I felt flush. I even worked as a bartender in College Hall, which was great fun.

As well as the internet, it seemed that molecular genetics was coming of age. I’d always been fascinated by evolutionary biology, and I wanted to work on evolution at the DNA level. I did my final-year project on variation in plant glutamate synthetase genes in John Pearson’s lab, and I did a summer studentship on sexual selection in stalk-eyed flies with Andrew Pomiankowski and Kevin Fowler. These experiences convinced me that I wanted a career in research, so I went on to do my DPhil at Oxford on yeast meiosis. At a conference in Hungary, I attended a session called “Experimental Evolution” chaired by Graham Bell, where Rich Lenski spoke. This was a revelation. I loved the idea that you could watch populations change and adapt in real time—seeing evolution happen over a few days. So I did a post-doc in Houston with Mike Travisano, one of the pioneers of experimental evolution, before coming back to UCL as a research fellow. I worked in the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Germany for several years, and then came back to UCL a third time. That excitement of discovery, which I first felt in the library and in the lab at UCL as an undergraduate, has stayed with me ever since, and it’s what drives my research today.

Looking ahead, I’m excited about building bridges between science and art. In my interactions with the Slade, I’ve seen how creative practice and scientific inquiry share a common spirit of curiosity and experimentation. UCL is uniquely positioned to make these collaborations possible—where world-class science and art sit side by side, and where students and researchers can cross boundaries to create something truly new. For me, the future lies in these intersections, which allow us new ways to see, explore, and understand the world in all its beauty and complexity.