Rebecca Boulton

What did you enjoy about your programme/the Biological Sciences department?

One of the best parts of the programme for me was the small size of our cohort. It meant that we got more face to face time with the staff who knew us individually. I think this personal touch is something that larger Universities lack and it really helped me  to feel comfortable to ask for help and advice from the staff. The focus on critiquing the literature and gaining  a  broad  understanding  of  current  work in behavioural ecology is another strength of the programme  that  I  think helped  me  progress  in academia.

What is your intended/current career path since graduating?

Since graduating I have completed an MRes in Primate Biology, Behaviour and Conservation at the University of Roehampton where I carried outresearch on reproductive success, parasitism andfacial symmetry in Olive baboons at Gashaka Gumti national park in Nigeria. I continued working withbaboons after finishing my Masters as a research assistant on the Tsaobis baboon project in Namibia. I went on to complete my PhD at the University of St Andrews where I shifted my focus onto insect mating systems with a focus on parasitoid wasps.

I have published papers in Biological Reviews, Evolution, Biology Letters, Animal Behaviour, Behavioural Ecology & Sociobiology and Ecology and Evolution. I finished my PhD in March 2016 and I am now working at the University of Minnesota on the potential for biological control of an invasive fly, Philornis downsi that is a nest parasite of Darwin’s finches in the Galapagos. Our hope is to find a suitably host specific parasitoid wasp that can be introduced to control the fly without risk to the endemic fauna of the Galapagos. In the future I hope to integrate my interests in mating systems and sexual selection to gain a better understanding of invasive species biology and biological control.