University of New South Wales - BEES Home - Associate Professor Rob Brooks

| Professional | Research | Publications |

More Information on my research group is available from our website: THE SEX LAB

I am interested in evolution, particularly in the context of sexual reproduction. My work has addressed the evolution of mate choice behaviour, the coevolution between mate choice and sexual advertisement, sex chromosome evolution, the biology of ageing and longevity, the risks of extinction, the genetic costs of inbreeding, the biological basis of individual diversity, and the measurement of natural selection.

My collaborators and I are particularly interested in:

The relationships between diet, reproductive effort and ageing,
Intralocus genetic conflict associated with sex and mating,
Sex-differences in ageing in the lab and the wild,
The maintenance of within-population in variation in sexual ornaments,
The effect of sexual selection on the degree of sex-linkage of ornamental traits,
The evolution of the Y-chromosome,
Within-population variation in female mate choice behaviour and mating preferences,
The costs of mate choice,
The roles of resource acquisition and allocation in male sexual signalling and the life-history tradeoffs involved,
The genetic basis of inbreeding depression,
The evolution of inbreeding avoidance,
The genetic benefits of mate choice and polyandry,
The relationship between sexual selection, sexual conflict and extinction risk,
The analysis and interpretation of nonlinear selection,
The use of new digital media and technologies to study human mate choice.

I currently have plans to take on 1-2 more PhD students and 1-2 more Honours or MPhil students in the next year. Students with a strong interest in research in any of the above areas should contact me via email to discuss potential projects. I am especially interested in students with skills in functional genomics, quantitative or molecular genetics, computer-generated imagery and animation. Research projects are well-funded, but students should be competitive for a scholarship to pay living expenses and tuition.

Much of our current research is conducted on guppies, field crickets and native flies. There are also opportunities to work on humans, mice and native Australian fishes (especially osteoglossids and blue-eyes).

Our research group is part of the Evolution & Ecology Research Centre and our PhD and MPhil students participate in the UNSW Graduate Program in Evolution & Ecology. Honours students participate in the BEES Honours Program.

EVOLUTIONARY ECOLOGY OF SEXUAL REPRODUCTION RESEARCH GROUP

Visit the Research Group Web Page