Joe Woodman

Evolutionary ecologist

I’ve always been really interested in the natural world. When I was younger, this took the form of spending most of my time outdoors looking for birds, bugs and other wildlife, while my time indoors was often spent reading about local natural history. As I progressed through school, I became more and more interested in learning about the processes that drive what we see in animal and plant communities, and made the decision to study Biology at university. I graduated Oxford last year (2020), and have since started my DPhil at the university with the Edward Grey Institute of Field Ornithology, where I am very lucky to undertake activities that are essentially very similar to some of my earliest interests and hobbies, but now in the more academic context of scientific research. This includes studying animal behaviour, ecology and evolution through analysing long term data on a great tit population to try and build an understanding of trends we see in population age structure, as well as fieldwork where I collect data on and handle the birds directly.

I hope to engage others in science and nature more and more in the future, so keep an eye on my blog and Instagram profile where I regularly post – and please get in contact if you’re interested or have any questions about my research!