Hi - I'm Sam! I'm a PhD student in the Pedersen Group at Edinburgh University. I work on trying to understand how ecological factors affect the spread of infectious disease.
I'm currently focused on how changes in resource distribution affects how animals interact, and how this changes their behaviour and disease transmission. I use a mixture of long-term field experiments, lab studies, biologging + social network analysis, and statistical and mathematical modelling.
That may sound like a mouthful but I'm an ecologist at heart, passionate about all things natural. As well as ecology I'm interested in teaching and using statistical modelling in R as well as trying to work out how we can apply modern open-science practices to ecological research.
Find out more about me and my work below or get in touch!
PhD Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 2023
Edinburgh University
BSc (hons) Ecology, 2019
Cardiff University
a timeline!
PhD student in the Pedersen Group studying the ecology of infectious diseases in wild mice. My current research is focused on how heterogeneity in resource availability affects space use, contact networks, and parasite transmission in wild mice, using a combination of field experiments and statistical and epidemiological methods.
Current responsibilities include:
and lots more!
See my current field work for more information about my current experiments or my CV for a more complete picture of my background!