Current Final Years
Current Third Years
Current Second Years
Current First Years
Current Final Years
Luca Hahn
Standard studentship with associate partner: In collaboration with University of the Exeter + Swansea University
Luca graduated from the University of Cologne (Germany) with a BSc in Biology, focusing on animal behaviour, ecology, evolution, and biodiversity. He then pursued an MSc in Evolutionary and Behavioural Ecology at the University of Exeter in Cornwall, where he investigated cooperative nest building in wild jackdaw pairs.
Luca is particularly captivated by cognitive, social, and cultural evolution. He explores the behaviour and cognition of diverse animals in the wild through the lenses of behavioural ecology and comparative psychology, asking questions about their “social mind”, e.g. social learning, social relationships, cooperation, and communication.
During his PhD at the University of Exeter, supervised by Prof Alex Thornton, Luca aims to better understand the benefits and costs of social relationships in wild jackdaws. More specifically, using various methods, he studies how the social world might affect variables such as health, stress, food, and cultural knowledge.
Current Third Years
Suleiman Mustapha
Standard studentship with associate partner: In collaboration with Rothamsted Research + Swansea University
Suleiman holds a Master of Science in Crop Protection from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria, where he studied the effects of horizontal and open vertical farming on predatory-prey interactions and the suppression of whiteflies infesting tomatoes. Ever since, he has grown considerably interested in sustainable pest management and chemical ecology, especially in arthropod-plant interactions and in exploiting olfactory cues such as identified herbivore-induced plant volatiles in manipulating pests’ behaviour and also in recruiting the third tropic level.
His research under Dr Sam Cook and Prof Tariq Butt will focus on developing volatile semiochemicals that would serve as repellents, attractants and/or bioinsecticides in the control of establishment pests in oilseed rape, with an overall aim of reducing pesticide usage, improvement of pest management strategy in oilseed rape and also in boosting confidence amongst farmers in the production of the crop.
Current Second Years
Bruno Carlos Ramos
Standard studentship with associate partner: In collaboration with Bristol + Swansea
Bruno graduated with Honors from Centro Universitario UNA. During his undergraduate project, Bruno researched fish communities and species distribution on one of the many Amazon river tributaries in Brazil. Building on his experience with freshwater, Bruno completed his MSc from 2021-2023 at the Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP), where he researched the effects of the pesticides Acephate and Methamidophos on the behaviour of zebrafish. Currently, Bruno is working with Prof Christos Ioannou, Prof Carlos Garcia De Leaniz, Prof Sofia Consuegra del Olmo and Prof Andrew Dowsey to develop a new AI tool for assessing fish welfare and well-being. This tool will provide a crucial means of alerting to any issues or problems in fish production through behaviour analysis using video recordings.
Tom Jenniches Perez
Standard studentship with associate partner: In collaboration with Swansea University + Cardiff University
Tom graduated from Swansea University with an MSci in Medical Biochemistry in 2023. During the final year of this degree, Tom completed a 10-month research project analysing the effect of novel treatments on cholesterol metabolism in the Huntington’s disease (HD) brain utilising cutting-edge mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) within the Griffiths-Wang (GW) Research Group at Swansea University. His interests in cholesterol metabolism, MSI and analysis of oxysterols via mass spectrometry led him to work as a Research Assistant on the ‘3-D Neurosterol Atlas of the Mouse Brain’ in the GW Research Group, in collaboration with the University of Edinburgh, in 2024.
Tom’s PhD project, supervised by Prof William Griffiths (Swansea University) and Dr Josie Parker (Cardiff University), aims to characterise CYP46A1, the major cholesterol metabolising enzyme in the brain, and determine the activity of this enzyme via MSI.
Current First Years
Christopher Moser-Purdy
Standard studentship with associate partner: In collaboration with University of Exeter + Swansea University
Christopher graduated from the University of Windsor (Canada) with an MSc in biology in 2016. His Master’s project focused on the ‘dear enemy’ effect in songbirds which occurs when territorial animals respond more aggressively to strangers than to neighbours. Since then, he has followed his passion for field work and animal behaviour, working in varied environments from the Canadian tundra to the dry forests of Madagascar.
Christopher’s PhD is co-supervised by Alex Thornton at the University of Exeter and Andrew King at the University of Swansea. His project focuses on the interplay between communicative complexity and social complexity in Jackdaws.
Katie Morgans
Standard studentship with associate partner (with CASE partner): In collaboration with Rothamsted Research + Swansea University
(she/her)
Katie completed her BSc in Applied Zoology at Harper Adams University and an MSc by Research in Entomology at the University of Reading, graduating with distinction. Her projects included working with UKHSA data to explore how trap design affects mosquito capture, and investigating bycatch in pitfall traps- highlighting how non-target invertebrates are often overlooked in ecological research.
These experiences shaped her interest in making insect monitoring more sustainable, aligning with her passion for wildlife and conservation. Katie also enjoys outreach, running insect and nature activities for all ages.
For her PhD, she is supervised by Dr Patricia Ortega-Ramos (Rothamsted Research) and Dr William Allen (Swansea University). Her research focuses on the visual ecology of cabbage stem flea beetle, a major pest of oilseed rape crops, to design selective traps that minimise bycatch of beneficial insects such as parasitic wasps.