Macroecology and Macroevolution Research Group
Dr Natalie Cooper
Assistant Professor
Home | Research group | Publications | Twitter | EcoEvo@TCD blog
Dr Natalie Cooper
Leader of the Macroecology and Macroevolution Research Group
Member of the Ecological and Evolutionary Networks Research Cluster
Research Interests
My research interests are macroecology and macroevolution, particularly the intersections between the two. I work with phylogenies, ecological data, trait data collected from museum specimens, species geographic range maps and various databases to try and understand broad scale patterns of biodiversity and morphological evolution. I am also interested in developing and testing phylogenetic comparative methods. Current projects in the group include convergent evolution and echolocation in Malagasy tenrecs (Sive Finlay: IRCSET), analyses to determine how fossils alter our interpretation of present-day biodiversity patterns using primates (Thomas Guillerme: Trinity; Marie Curie), and studies of parasite sharing among primates (with Prof. Charles L Nunn).
News
Congratulations to Sive Finlay for winning Best Biology Student 2012 in the European SET Awards! Full story here.
Some media coverage of our recent Ecology Letters paper on parasite sharing in primates.
Primates can help us anticipate the diseases of the future: Science Omega
Searching for animal disease transmission: Voice of America
Humans share more diseases with primates than previously thought: thejournal.ie
Data sharing
I am a great believer in sharing data and other research outputs. All data used in our publications can be found in Dryad or Figshare. I will also post practical handouts and lectures where possible. Feel free to use and/or modify as needed. We are currently in the process of adding data to these repositories so in the meantime if you can't find what you need please just drop me an email.
Opportunities
There are several personal awards available in Ireland (e.g. IRCSET) and the EU (e.g. Marie Curie) that allow people to pursue a PhD or post-doctoral research through scholarships and fellowships. If you are interested in joining the group, get in touch and we can discuss ideas and funding opportunities.
Contact
Mail: Zoology Building, School of Natural Sciences,
Trinity College Dublin,
Dublin 2,
Ireland
Email: ncooper(at)tcd.ie
Twitter: @nhcooper123
Phone: +353 (0)1 896 1926 (work)