We would like to welcome 4 new Applications Editors to our editorial board: Rich Fitzjohn from Macquarie University, Australia, Ruth King from the University of St Andrews, Scotland, Brian O’Meara from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Timothée Poisot from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
Rich, Ruth, Brian and Tim are the first of a new group of Associate Editors who will deal solely with our Applications papers, (citable descriptions of new software, equipment, or other practical tools) while considering the implementation of methods as computational tools.
Rich investigates why some groups of species are far more diverse than others, and the contribution of differences in species traits to coexistence. He uses phylogenetic and trait data to develop new statistical approaches to describe variation in diversity. Current research uses mathematical and simulation modeling to understand how trait variation allows for species co-existence. He’s also interested in developing tools to make science more open and reproducible.
Ruth’s research interests primarily lie within the area of statistical ecology. In particular she is interested in the development of novel statistical methodology for analysing complex ecological, and associated, data. Areas of interest include the analysis of capture-recapture-recovery data, state-space/hidden Markov models, integrated population modelling, incorporating covariate information and/or individual heterogeneity (including dealing with associated missing data) and associated Bayesian and classical model-fitting tools.
Brian works on developing and applying phylogenetic methods to address key questions in evolution and, to a lesser extent, ecology. His work largely focuses on comparative methods, including methods for heterogeneity in continuous and discrete characters, but he also works on phylogeography, species delimitation, protein evolution, diversification, and more.
Tim is interested in the spatial and temporal dynamics of species interactions at the community level. His research seeks to develop predictive models to forecast the structure of communities when observations about species interactions are scarce, understanding the relevance of variability in community structure on emerging ecosystem properties, and the evolutionary dynamics of multi-species assemblages. He explores these questions using computational approaches, from standard models of population dynamics to graph-theoretical approaches.
Methods Blog 