I’m an evolutionary biologist, so I ask a lot of ‘why’ and ‘how’ questions. Why do viruses mutate so fast?  How do bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, and can we fix it before we get into real  trouble?  Viruses also do some strange things to the hosts that they infect, like make them really aggressive or turn them into zombies, and I’m interested in learning more about why that happens.

I’m a theoretical biologist, so I use reasoning, mathematics, and computers as my tools to study these questions.

Strangely, though I work on viruses and bacteria now, my background is in the study of animal behaviour;  so, if you look on my CV, you’ll see that my title my studies were actually in a field called ‘behavioural ecology’.  Behavioural ecology is the study of how evolution and ecology (the relationships between animals and their environment) have shaped animal behaviour.

Honestly, if you looked in on me at any given moment, it would look pretty boring;  mostly, you’d see me staring intently at a computer screen, typing in short bursts or reading in complete silence.

I’m a reasonably competent programmer and I’ve actually written apps for iOS previously; I would use the money to pay for high quality art and music for the game and for other costs associated with writing and releasing an app.