Per Smiseth

Background

1999    PhD, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

2000-2002    Research Council of Norway Postdoctoral Fellow, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester

2002-2005    Postdoctoral Research Associate, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester

2005-2008    NERC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Manchester

2008-Present    Lecturer in Animal Behaviour, Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh  

Undergraduate teaching

Animal Biology (second year)

Field Zoology (third year)

Behavioural Ecology (third year)

Evolution of Parental Care (honours)

Zoology (honours)

Research summary

I am interested in the evolution of parental care and the evolutionary resolution of conflicts within families over the allocation of care. My background is from behavioural ecology, but I am currently interested in the integration between behavioural ecology, quantitative genetics and behavioural endocrinology. My main study system is the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides, but I have a broad taxonomic background that includes work on birds and mammals. Current research projects focus on the evolution of parental care, the quantitative genetics of parental care, the evolution of parent-offspring communication and its role in conflict resolution, the evolution of sibling competition, sexual conflict between male and female parents, the adaptive value of asynchronous hatching, the hormonal regulation of offspring begging, and resource competition between animals and microbes.

Grants

My research is funded by NERC, but I have also collaborations with Daniel Rozen at The University of Manchester funded by The Leverhulme Trust and NERC.