alfredo_ragoAs pointed out by Scott Gilbert, the environment is a “normal agent of development”. But how do organisms evolve to integrate features of the environment into their development? And how does that affect their ability to evolve further? These are some of the questions that Alfredo will address in his research, which is a close collaboration with computer scientist Richard Watson at the University of Southampton. We are very excited to have Alfredo here on what promises to be an outstanding project!

Alfredo brings strong opinions about coffee and much more to the group. Except for the coffee we think he’ll be fine. Just consider that he is from Rome, the epicentre of green-and-black wall lizards, and did his PhD at the University of Birmingham with John Colbourne, one of the founders of the Daphnia Genomics Consortium. Not to mention that he began his science career as an Msc student with Tobias at Oxford, unravelling what makes some frogs such good invaders. Welcome, Alfredo!

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