Greg Albery

Disease Ecologist

gfalbery@gmail.com // gregalbery.me

google scholar || github || twitter || researchgate

Department of Zoology, Trinity College Dublin

Dublin, Republic of Ireland

I am a data-minded behaviour and disease ecologist with a wide range of skills and interests, specialising in eco-evolutionary studies of immunity and parasitism in wild animals. My research focuses on unravelling the spatial and social drivers of disease risk and using them to inform epidemiological models, the evolution of social systems, the consequences of global change, and public health and conservation interventions.

Publications

🜾 = Supervised undergraduate

🜢 = Supervised postgraduate/postdoc

🜨 = Shared lead authorship

Citations: 2493

h-Index: 26

i10-Index: 38

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

379: 20220469

53.

Firth J, Albery GF, Bouwhuis S, Brent L, Salguero-Gomez R (2024). Understanding age and society using natural populations. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0469 (PDF)

Ecology Letters

52.

Motes-Rodrigo A🜨, Albery GF🜨, Negron-Del Valle JE, Philips D, Cayo Biobank Research Unit, Platt ML, Brent LJN, Testard C (Accepted). A natural disaster exacerbates and redistributes disease risk across free-ranging macaques by altering social structure. Preprint: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.17.549341

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

 379: 20220534

51.

Albery GF🜨, Webber QMR🜨, Farine DR, Picardi S, Vander Wal E, Manlove K. Expanding theory, methodology, and empirical systems at the spatial-social interface. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0534 (PDF)

Journal of Animal Ecology

50.

Knutie SA, Bertone MA, Bahouth R, Webb C, Mehta M, Nahom M, Barta RM, Ghai S, Balenger SL, Butler MW, Kennedy AC, Reichard BS, Taff CC, Albery GF (Accepted). Understanding spatiotemporal effects of food supplementation on host-parasite interactions using community-based science. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.14155

Current Biology

34, 1-8

49.

Rudd L🜢, Packer C, Biro D, Firth JA, Albery GF (2024). Sex-specific social ageing in wild African lions. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.07.040 (PDF)

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

 379: 20230508.

48.

Albery GF, Morris S, Morris A, Kenyon F, McBean D, Pemberton JM, Nussey DH, Firth JA. (2024). Divergent age-related changes in parasite infection occur independently of behaviour and demography in a wild ungulate. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2023.0508 (PDF)

Virus Evolution

10 (1): vead079

47.

Forero-Munoz NR, Muylaert RL, Seifert SN, Albery GF, Becker D, Carlson CJ, Poisot T (2024). The coevolutionary mosaic of bat betacoronavirus emergence risk. https://doi.org/10.1093/ve/vead079 (PDF)

Ecology Letters

27, e14345

46.

Albery GF, Bansal S, Silk M (2024). Comparative approaches in social network ecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14345 (PDF)

Neuroscience and Biobehavioural Reviews

155, 105426

45.

Albery GF, Sweeny AR, Webber Q (2023). How behavioural ageing affects infectious disease. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2023.105426 (PDF)

eLife

12:e81805

44.

Gupte PR, Albery GF, Gismann J, Sweeny AR, Weissing FJ (2023). Novel pathogen introduction triggers rapid evolution in animal social movement strategies. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.81805 (PDF)

PloS Neglected Tropical Diseases

17(6): e0011407

43.

Silva NIO🜨, Albery GF🜨, Arruda MS, Oliveira GC, Costa TA, Munhoz de Mello E, Dias GM, Reis EV, Becker DJ, Carlson CJ, Vasilakis N, Hanley K, Drumond BV (2023). Ecological drivers of sustained enzootic yellow fever virus transmission in Brazil, 2017-2021. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0011407 (PDF)

Patterns

4(6), 100738

42.

Poisot T, Ouellet MA, Mollentze N, Farrell MJ, Becker DJ, Albery GF, Gibb RJ, Seifert SN, Carlson CJ (2023). Network embedding unveils the hidden interactions in the mammalian virome. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.patter.2023.100738

Methods in Ecology and Evolution

14 (8), 1937-1951

41.

Schofield D🜢, Albery GF, Firth JA, Mielke A, Hayashi M, Matsuzawa T, Biro D, Carvalho S (2023). Automated face recognition using deep neural networks produces robust primate social networks and sociality measures. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.14181 (PDF)

Functional Ecology

37(4), 809-820

40.

Stockmaier S, Ulrich Y, Albery GF, Cremer S, Lopes PC (2023). Behavioural responses to parasites in different host social structures. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.14310 (PDF)

Molecular Ecology

32 (9), 2351-2363

39.

Sanaei E, Albery GF, Yeoh YK, Lin YP, Cook LG, Engelstaedter J (2023). Host phylogeny and ecological associations best explain Wolbachia host shifts in scale insects. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.16883

Biological Reviews

98(3), 868-886

38.

Webber QMR🜨, Albery GF🜨, Farine DR, Pinter-Wollman N, Sharma N, Spiegel O, Vander Wal E, Manlove K (2023). Behavioural ecology at the spatial-social interface. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12934 (PDF)

American Naturalist

201(6), 813-824

37.

Gokcekus S🜢, Cole E, Firth JA, Regan C, Sheldon B, Albery GF (2023). Social familiarity and spatially variable environments independently determine reproductive fitness in a wild bird. https://doi.org/10.1086/724382 (PDF)

Molecular Ecology

32 (1), 37-44

36.

Pegg CL, Schulz BL, Neely BA, Albery GF, Carlson CJ (2023). Glycosylation and the global virome. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.16731

Proceedings of the Royal Society B

289 (1989), 20221389

35.

Collier M🜢, Albery GF, McDonald GC, Bansal S (2022). Pathogen transmission modes determine contact network structure, altering other pathogen characteristics. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.1389 (PDF)

Parasitology

149 (13), 1702-1708

34.

Acerini CI🜾, Morris S, Morris A, Kenyon F, McBean D, Pemberton JM, Albery GF (2022). Helminth parasites are associated with reduced survival probability in young red deer. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031182022001111 (PDF)

Proceedings of the Royal Society B

289 (1978), 20220358

33.

Crates R, Watson D, Albery GF, Murphy L, Timewell C, Meney B, Roderick M, Ingwersen D, Heinsohn R (2022).  Mistletoes moderate drought impacts on birds, but are themselves susceptible to drought-induced dieback. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0358

Nature

607, 555–562

32.

Carlson CJ🜨, Albery GF🜨, Merow C, Trisos CH, Zipfel CM, Eskew E, Ross N, Olival K, Bansal S (2022). Climate change increases cross-species viral transmission risk. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04788-w (PDF)

Functional Ecology

36 (7), 1713-1726

31.

Sweeny AR🜨, Albery GF🜨 (2022). Exposure and susceptibility: the twin pillars of infection. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.14065 (PDF)

Ecology Letters

25(6), 1534-1549

30.

Fagre AC🜢, Cohen LE, Eskew EA, Farrell M, Glennon E, Joseph MB, Frank HK, Ryan S,  Carlson CJ, Albery GF (2022). Assessing the risk of human-to-wildlife pathogen transmission for conservation and public health. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14003  (PDF)

Nature Ecology and Evolution

6, 1231–1238

29.

Albery GF, Clutton-Brock TH, Morris A, Morris S, Pemberton JM, Nussey DH, Firth JA (2022). Ageing red deer change spatial behaviour and  become less social. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01817-9 (PDF)

Nature Ecology and Evolution

6, 794–801

28.

Albery GF, Carlson CJ, Cohen LE, Eskew EA, Gibb R, Ryan SJ, Sweeny AR, Becker DJ (2022). Urban-adapted mammals have more known pathogens. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01723-0 (PDF)

Functional Ecology

36 (1), 214-225

27.

Albery GF, Sweeny AR, Becker DJ, Bansal S (2022). Fine-scale spatial patterns of wildlife disease are common and understudied. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13942 (PDF)

Lancet Microbe

3(8),  E625-E637

26.

Becker DJ🜨, Albery GF🜨,  Sjodin AR, Poisot T, Dallas TA, Eskew EA, Farrell MJ, Guth S, Han BA, Simmons NB, Teeling EC, Carlson CJ (2022). Optimising predictive models to prioritise viral discovery in zoonotic reservoirs. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-5247(21)00245-7 (PDF)

Biology Letters

18 (1), 20210427

25.

Gibb RJ, Albery GF, Mollentze N, Eskew EA, Brierley L, Ryan SJ, Seifert SN, Carlson CJ (2022). Mammal virus diversity estimates are unstable due to accelerating discovery effort. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0427

mBio

13 (2), e02985-21

24.

Carlson CJ, Gibb RJ, Albery GF, et al. The Global Virome in One Network (VIRION): an atlas of vertebrate-virus associations (2022). https://doi.org/10.1128/mbio.02985-21

Acta Tropica

225: 106203

23.

Ikeda P, Torres JM, Lourenço EC, Albery GF, et al. (2022). Molecular detection and genotype diversity of hemoplasmas in non-hematophagous bats and associated ectoparasites sampled in peri-urban areas from Brazil. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actatropica.2021.106203

Nature Microbiology

6, 1483–1492

22.

Albery GF, Becker DJ, Brook C, Dallas TA, Farrell M, Glennon E, Guth S, Joseph MB, Mollentze N, Poisot T, Sjodin AR, Carlson CJ (2021). The science of the host-virus network. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-021-00999-5 (PDF)

Journal of Animal Ecology

90 (12), 2744-2754

21.

Sweeny AR, Albery GF, Becker DJ, Eskew EA, Carlson CJ (2021). Synzootics. Journal of Animal Ecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13595 (PDF)

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

376: 20200358

20.

Carlson CJ, Farrell MJ, Grange Z, Han BA, Mollentze N, Phelan AL, Rasmussen AL, Albery GF, et al. (2021). The future of zoonotic risk prediction. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0358

Bioscience

77 (11), 1148-1156

19.

Gibb R, Albery GF, Becker DJ, Brierley L, Connor R, Dallas TA, Eskew EA, Farrell MJ, Rasmussen AL, Ryan SJ, Sweeny AR, Carlson CJ, Poisot T (2021). Data proliferation, reconciliation, and synthesis in viral ecology. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biab080

Fire Ecology

17:23

18.

Albery GF, Turilli I🜾, Joseph MB, Foley J, Frère CH, Bansal S (2021). From flames to inflammation: how wildfires affect patterns of wildlife disease. https://doi.org/10.1186/s42408-021-00113-4 (PDF)

Virus Evolution

7(1), veab031

17.

Wallace M, Coffman KA, Gilbert C, Ravindran S, Albery GF, et al. (2021). The discovery, distribution and diversity of DNA viruses associated with Drosophila melanogaster in Europe. https://doi.org/10.1093/ve/veab031 (PDF)

BMJ Global Health

6:e004254

16.

Carlson CJ, Albery GF, Phelan AL (2021). Preparing international cooperation on pandemic prevention to the Anthropocene. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-004254 (PDF)

Functional Ecology

35: 1277– 1287

15.

Sweeny AR, Albery GF, Venkatesan SV, Fenton AF, Pedersen AB (2021). Spatiotemporal variation in drivers of parasitism in a wild wood mouse population. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13786 (PDF)

Ecology Letters

24 (4), 676-686

14.

Albery GF, Morris A, Morris S, Pemberton JM, Clutton-Brock TH, Nussey DH, Firth JA (2021). Multiple spatial behaviours govern social network positions in a wild ungulate. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13684 (PDF)

The American Naturalist

197 (3)

13.

Albery GF, Morris A, Morris S, Kenyon F, Nussey DH, Pemberton JM (2021). Fitness costs of parasites explain multiple life history tradeoffs in a wild mammal. https://doi.org/10.1086/712633 (PDF)

Trends in Parasitology

37 (2), 117-129

12.

Albery GF, Becker DJ (2021). Fast-lived hosts and zoonotic risk. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pt.2020.10.012(PDF)

Journal of Animal Ecology

90: 45– 61

11.

Albery GF, Kirkpatrick L, Firth JA, Bansal S (2021). Unifying spatial and social network analysis in disease ecology. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13356 (PDF)

Proceedings of the Royal Society B

287 (1941), 20202655

10.

Albery GF, Newman C, Bright Ross J, Macdonald DW, Bansal S, Buesching C (2020). Negative density-dependent parasitism in a group-living carnivore. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2020.2655 (PDF)

Nature Communications

11, 2260

9.

Albery GF, Eskew EA, Ross N, Olival KJ (2020). Predicting the global mammalian viral sharing network using phylogeography. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-16153-4  (PDF)

Functional Ecology

34 (1), 229-239

8.

Albery GF, Watt K, Keith R🜾, Morris S, Morris A, Kenyon F, Nussey DH, Pemberton JM (2020). Reproduction has different costs for immunity and parasitism in a wild mammal. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13475 (PDF)

Molecular Ecology

29 (17), 3170-3172

7.

Becker DJ, Albery GF (2020). Expanding host specificity and pathogen sharing beyond viruses. https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.15573 (PDF)

Journal of Animal Ecology

89 (4), 972-995

6.

Becker DJ, Albery GF, Kessler MK, Lunn T, Falvo CA, Czirjak GA, Martin LB, Plowright RK (2020). Macroimmunology: the drivers and consequences of spatial patterns in wildlife immune defence. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2656.13166 (PDF)

Malaria Journal

19 (1):17

5.

Westwood ML, O’Donnell AJ, Schneider P, Albery GF, Reece SE (2020). Testing possible causes of gametocyte reduction in temporally out-of-synch malaria infections. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-020-3107-1 

PeerJ

8:e8631

4.

Cooke AS, Watt K, Albery GF, Morgan ER, Dungait JAJ (2020): Lactoferrin quantification in cattle faeces by ELISA. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.8631

Integrative and Comparative Biology

icz016

3.

Albery GF, Becker DJ, Kenyon F, Nussey DH, Pemberton JM (2019). The fine-scale landscape of immunity and parasitism in a wild ungulate population. https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icz016 (PDF)

Parasitology

145, 1410–1420

2.

Albery GF, Kenyon F, Morris A, Morris S, Nussey DH, Pemberton JM (2018). Seasonality of helminth infection in wild red deer varies between individuals and between parasite taxa. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0031182018000185 (PDF)

Biology Letters

10, 2-5

1.

Hunt EH, O’Shea-Wheller T, Albery GF, Bridger TH, Gumn M, Franks NR (2014). Ants show a leftward turning bias when exploring unknown nest sites. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2014.0945

In Revision:

Albery GF et al. [102 other coauthors]. Density-dependent network structuring within and across wild animal systems. In revision for Nature Ecology and Evolution.  Preprint: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.06.28.601262

Albery GF🜨,  Sweeny AR🜨, Sweeny AR, Corripio-Miyar Y, Evans M, Hayward A, Pemberton JM, Pilkington J, Nussey DH. Local and global density have distinct and parasite-dependent effects on infection in wild sheep. Under review at Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Preprint: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.04.30.591781

Gokcekus S🜢, Cole E, Firth JA, Regan C, Sheldon B, Albery GF. Different types of social links contrastingly shape reproductive traits in a multi-level society of wild songbirds. Under review at Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology. Preprint: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.02.02.578606

Nikc K, Albery GF, Carlson CJ, Becker DJ, Eskew E, Fagre A, Ryan S. Viral diversity and zoonotic risk in endangered species. In revision for Ecology and Evolution. Preprint: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.06.27.497730

Stevens T, Zimmerman R, Albery GF, et al. A minimum data standard for wildlife disease studies. Submitted to Scientific Data. Preprint: https://doi.org/10.32942/X2TW4J

Submitted, preprinted, or Under Review:

Hasik AZ🜢, Maris K, Butt S, Turner R, Pemberton JM, Albery GF. Population density drives increased parasitism via greater exposure and reduced resource availability in wild deer. Under review at Ecology Letters. Preprint: https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.07.08.602460

Gibb R, Ryan SJ, Pigott D, Fernandez MdP, Muylaert RL, Albery GF, et al. The anthropogenic fingerprint on emerging infectious diseases. Submitted to Nature. Preprint: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.22.24307684v1

Hewett AM, Johnston SE, Albery GF, Morris A, Morris SJ, Pemberton JM.  Spatial variation in fitness and inbreeding, but little evidence for inbreeding depression-by-environment interactions in a wild ungulate. Submitted to Evolution Letters.

Becker SC, Albery GF, Jackson N, Prewett E, McGuigan K, Frere CH. Indirect pathogen transmission underlies an emerging infectious fungal disease outbreak in a wild reptile population. Submitted to Ecology Letters.

Firth JA, Albery GF, Beck KB, Jarić I, Spurgin LG, Sheldon BC, Hoppitt W: Analysing the Social Spread of Behaviour: Integrating Complexity into Network Based Diffusions. Preprint:  https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.08925

Albery GF. Density dependence and disease dynamics: moving towards a predictive framework. Preprint: https://doi.org/10.32942/osf.io/gaw49

Albery GF. One hand washes the other: cooperation and conflict in hygiene and immunity. Preprint:  https://doi.org/10.32942/osf.io/3pvga

Class B, Powell D, Terraube J, Albery GF, Delme C, Bansal S, Frère CH.  The epidemiology and genomics of a virulent emerging fungal pathogen in an Australian reptile. Preprint: https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.22.465237

Datasets

Red Deer Immunoparasitology: established and maintained three years of faecal sample collection from a large wild ungulate, totalling >2500 samples, with counts of 8 parasite taxa and mucosal antibody levels. We used the data to win a NERC grant and a Leverhulme Trust Research Grant, extending faecal sample collection for a further eight years. The resulting dataset will total ~8000 samples spanning eleven years, with plans to extend indefinitely.

Grants and awards

2023

• Animal Social Ageing Network Working Group: “Coinfection across the lifespan: linking juvenile and adult infection in long-lived mammals”. Role: PI ($15,000)
• Georgetown University International Collaborative Grant: “Launching a new era of comparative social network analysis”. Role: PI ($15,000)
• Wild Animal Initiative Research Grant: “Density-Dependent Welfare in Wild Bird Social Systems: Linking Individual Welfare with Resource Distributions and Disease Dynamics”. Role: Co-PI ($99,466) (24 months; 50% time)

2022

• National Science Foundation Biology Integration Institute (NSF-BII) Implementation: “VERENA: Predicting the global host-virus network from molecular foundations”. Role: Senior Personnel, Investigator ($12,456,537) (60 months, 17% time)
• National Science Foundation Division of Environmental Biology Grant: “Density dependence and disease dynamics: a cross-system synthesis”. Role: Co-PI ($200,000) (24 months, 58% time)
• Leverhulme Trust Research Grant: "How do parasites determine host population distribution in space and time?". Role: Writer, Named Postdoc (£392,616) (36 months, 100% time)

2021

• Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin Time to Think Fellowship: “Density dependence and disease dynamics: a cross-system synthesis”. Role: PI (€20,100) (6 months, 100% time)
• CREID Pilot Research Program: “Investigation of the spatiotemporal dynamics and ecological drivers of enzootic arboviruses circulation in non-human primates in Minas Gerais state/Southeast Brazil”. Role: Collaborator ($134,600) (1 year, 8% time)

2020

• NIH Bruce McEwen Fellowship: “Investigating the epidemiological consequences of social ageing in a long-lived mammal”. Role: PI ($6,000)
• NSF Biology Integration Institute design grant: “Exploring the ecology and evolution of the global virome with data and machine learning”. Role: Collaborator ($166,189)
• Fields Museum Innovation Grant: “Testing predictions of betacoronavirus hosts with the Field Museum’s mammal tissue collection”. Role: Collaborator ($55,000)

2019

• NERC Overseas Research Fund (£640)
• Best Student Presentation, SICB Division of Disease Ecology ($150)
• SICB Conference Contributor Bursary ($360)
• NERC Overseas Research Fund (£250)
• IDEAS RCN Research Exchange Grant ($2,500)

2018

• NERC Professional Development Scholarship (£4,200)
• IDEAS RCN Immunity Across Scales Workshop Funding (£130)
• NERC Overseas Research Fund (£1,500)
• BES Training Grant (£500)
• Best Student Talk, Scottish Ecology, Environment and Conservation conference
• 3 Minute Thesis Competition Winner, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh (£50)

2015

• NERC E3 Doctoral Training Partnership: “Spatiotemporal and individual drivers of variation in parasitism and immunity in wild red deer.” Role: PI (£55,350)

2014

• Keble College Academic Scholarship, University of Oxford, awarded for performance in second year examinations.

Professor Shweta Bansal (Postdoc Supervisor) 📧

Department of Biology, Georgetown University

Professor Josephine Pemberton (PhD Supervisor) 📧

Institute of Evolutionary Biology,  University of Edinburgh

Professor Stephen Kearsey (Undergraduate tutor) 📧

Department of Biology,  University of Oxford

Professor Dan Nussey (PhD Co-supervisor) 📧

Institute of Evolutionary Biology,  University of Edinburgh

Presentations

Talks

Population density shapes brood failure in a wild great tit and blue tit population, Animal Welfare Research network, Online, October 2024 (invited seminar talk).

How socio-spatial structuring drives and prevents infection in wild animal societies, Ecological Society of America, Long Beach, CA, August 2024 (invited conference talk).

Climatic variation drives broad patterns of coronavirus infection in individual bats, Ecological Society of America, Long Beach, CA, August 2024 (invited conference talk).

Ageing in wild animals, Georgetown Healthy Ageing Conference, Washington, DC, July 2024 (invited conference talk).

Incorporating social ageing into eco-evolutionary models of host-pathogen systems, Royal Society Hooke Conference, London, UK, February 2024 (invited conference talk).

Social ageing and helminth infection in wild red deer, Animal Behaviour Society Conference, Portland, Oregon, USA, July 2023 (invited conference talk).

One hand washes the other: how socio-spatial behaviours drive and inhibit infection, University of Glasgow seminar, June 2023 (invited seminar talk).

The role of natural disasters in driving wildlife disease and facilitating disease emergence, ESI-CEC Symposium: Ecological and Evolutionary drivers of pathogen emergence, June 2023 (invited conference talk).

One hand washes the other: how socio-spatial behaviours drive and inhibit infection, Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research seminar, April 2023 (invited seminar talk).

Global change, predictive models, and the science of the host-virus network, Heidelberg IWR Colloquium on Computational Methods in Sciences, April 2023 (invited seminar talk).

One hand washes the other: how socio-spatial behaviours drive and inhibit infection, University of Sheffield EEB seminar, March 2023 (invited seminar talk).

From flames to inflammation: how wildfires affect patterns of wildlife disease, Northern Rockies Fire Science Network webinar, March 2023 (invited seminar talk).

From flames to inflammation: how wildfires affect patterns of wildlife disease, California Fire Society Consortium webinar, October 2022 (invited seminar talk).

Using fine-scale meta-datasets to understand and predict disease dynamics, Ecological Society of America, August 2022 (invited conference talk).

One hand washes the other: how socio-spatial behaviours drive and inhibit infection, Freie Universität Berlin seminar, April 2022 (invited seminar talk).

One hand washes the other: how socio-spatial behaviours drive and inhibit infection, University of Zurich seminar, April 2022 (invited seminar talk).

One hand washes the other: how socio-spatial behaviours drive and inhibit infection, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin Colloquium, March 2022 (invited seminar talk).

Urbanisation, sampling bias, and the drivers of pathogen diversity in wild animals, British Ecological Society, Liverpool, UK, December 2021 (invited conference talk).

Density Dependence and Disease Dynamics: a Cross-System Synthesis, Online Seminar Series in Evolution and Ecology, October 2021 (invited seminar talk). Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL3GTkrctk4

Age-related changes in social behaviour shape disease dynamics in a wild ungulate, UGA CEID Symposium: Research Frontiers in Animal Behaviour & Parasitism, May 2021.

Density Dependence and Disease Dynamics: a Cross-System Synthesis, University of Exeter seminar, May 2021 (invited seminar talk).

Landscapes of Disgust: the inevitable consequence of parasite avoidance, Louisiana State University SEE seminar, August 2020 (invited seminar talk).

Fine-scale spatial patterns of wildlife disease are common and understudied, Ecological Society of America, August 2020.

Spatial parasite avoidance in a group-living carnivore, American Society for Animal Behaviour Virtual Conference, July 2020.

Landscapes of Disgust: the inevitable consequence of parasite avoidance, University of California Berkeley EEID seminar, July 2020 (invited seminar talk).

Landscapes of Disgust: the inevitable consequence of parasite avoidance, University of Oxford Department of Zoology seminar, June 2020 (invited seminar talk).

Spatial and social networks in wildlife disease ecology, University of California Berkeley EEID seminar, October 2019 (invited seminar talk).

The Fine-scale Landscape of Immunity in a Wild Mammal, Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, Tampa, Florida, January 2019 (awarded Best Student Talk, Disease Ecology and Ecoimmunology Division).

Reproduction-Immunity Tradeoffs in a Wild Mammal, Edinburgh Infectious Diseases (invited seminar talk), Edinburgh, Scotland, May 2018.

Reproduction-Immunity Tradeoffs in a Wild Mammal, Scottish Ecology, Environment and Conservation Conference, St Andrews, Scotland, March 2018 (awarded Best Student Talk).

The Epidemiology of Helminth Parasites in Wild Red Deer, British Society for Parasitology, Dundee, Scotland, April 2017.

The Epidemiology of Helminth Parasites in Wild Red Deer, Departmental Seminar, University of Edinburgh Institute of Evolutionary Biology, April 2017.

Posters

Climate change influences disease emergence across the animal-human interface, Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases, Stanford, California, USA, June 2024

Population density amplifies contact rates in dozens of wild animal populations, CNRS Conferences Jacques Monod, Roscoff, France, October 2023

Age-related changes in social behaviour shape disease dynamics in a wild ungulate, the Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases, Montpellier, France, June 2021.

Predicting global patterns of mammalian viral sharing using two phylogeographic traits, the Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases, Princeton, NJ, June 2019

Reproduction-Immunity Tradeoffs in a Wild Mammal, the Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases, Glasgow, Scotland, May 2018

Heterogeneity in Helminth Egg Shedding in Wild Red Deer, CNRS Conferences Jacques Monod, Roscoff, France, October 2017

The Epidemiology of Helminth Parasites in Wild Red Deer, Edinburgh Infectious Diseases, Edinburgh, Scotland, June 2017

Selected press coverage

See all Verena news at https://www.viralemergence.org/news.

Climate change drives novel cross-species viral transmission (Carlson, Albery, et al. 2022): Quoted in >650 press articles including The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Le Monde (Altmetric for list). Carbon Brief’s most-talked-about climate change paper since their records began in 2015.

Ageing red deer alter their spatial behaviour and become less social (Albery et al. 2022): Quoted in 14 press articles including The Telegraph, The Mail, and The Metro.

Urban-adapted mammal species have more known pathogens (Albery et al. 2022): Quoted in >60 press articles including The Telegraph (Altmetric for list)

Assessing the risk of human-to-wildlife pathogen transmission for conservation and public health (Fagre et al. 2022): Quoted in >10 press articles.

Academic service

Journal editing:

Ecology Letters || Data Editor, occasional handling editor.

June 2023-Present

Special issue organisation and editing:

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Understanding Age and Society using Natural Populations (publication mid-2024). Role: Guest Editor.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: The spatial-social interface: A theoretical and empirical integration (publication September 2024). Role: Guest Editor.

Conference and scientific meeting organisation:

Animal Social Ageing Network Working Group, December 2024: Coinfection across the lifespan: linking juvenile and adult infection in long-lived mammals. Role: lead organiser.

Georgetown International Collaborative working group, November 2024: Launching a new era of comparative social network analysis. Role: lead organiser.

Royal Society Meeting, February 2024: Understanding Age and Society using Natural Populations. Role: co-organiser. (Link to program)

Ecological Society of America, August 2021: Organised an Oral Session named “Integrating spatial and social behaviour across ecological systems”. Role: co-lead organiser.

Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, December 2020: Organised a Science Cafe named “Integrating theory and analysis of spatial and social behaviour across systems”. Role: co-lead organiser.

Grant advisory board positions:

Horizon Europe Grant, 2023-2028: “RestoreID: Restoring Ecosystems to Stop the Threat Of Re-Emerging Infectious Disease”.

Teaching

Training courses:

2021-2022: Designed and taught 4 intensive 5-day courses, Network Analysis in R (30 hours per course)

2018: Wrote and taught an open, free 3-hour Coding Club course on spatial analysis: https://ourcodingclub.github.io/tutorials/inla/

Lecturing on undergraduate courses:

Trinity College Dublin: Lead Lecturer

Autumn 2024: Influences on Animal Behaviour (BYU22205).

Georgetown University: Course Design and Sole Lecturer

Fall 2023: The Ecology of Global Change and Disease Emergence (1 credit; STIA-2203).

Spring 2024: Ecology of Emerging Diseases (1 credit; BIOL-4714).

Georgetown University: Guest Lecturer

2019: Ecology of Infectious Diseases (BIOL-438-02).

Demonstration on undergraduate courses:

University of Edinburgh, 2015-2018

Quantification in the Life Sciences (1st Year); Animal Biology, Evolution in Action facilitated discussion leader (2nd Year); Parasite Biology; Ecological and Evolutionary Genetics (3rd Year).

Field assistants:

Recruited and trained six helpers in behavioural observation and faecal collection and processing for a large wild mammal (European red deer, Cervus elaphus) in a remote location (The Isle of Rum, Scotland).

Lab assistants:

Trained two undergraduate researchers and three graduate research assistants in faecal processing, parasitological counts, and faecal antibody extraction and ELISAs.

Supervision of postdoctoral projects:

University of Edinburgh, 2023-Present

Adam Hasik: How do parasites determine host population distribution in space and time?

Supervision of postgraduate projects:

University of Queensland

2024-present: Samuel Becker: Water dragon social behaviour and fungal transmission.

Georgetown University, 2020-2023

Melissa Collier: Pathogen transmission modes determine contact network structures.

VERENA Institute

2024-present: Natalie Olsen: VERENA Fellow in Residence placement: Linking local extractive processes with spillover risk in the Congo Basin.

2024-present: Mika O’Shea: VERENA rotation student placement: Gene loss in bats and its relationship to infectious disease.

2020-2022: Anna Fagre: Spillback in the Anthropocene: the risk of human-to-wildlife pathogen transmission for conservation and public health.

University of Oxford

2023-2024: Lauren Rudd: Social ageing in wild lions.

2020-2023: Samin Gokcekus: Familiarity and fitness in wild great tits.

Supervision of undergraduate projects:

Georgetown University

2024-present: Fritze Mayer: Ageing, behaviour, and infectious disease.

2020-2022: Isabella Turilli: Large-scale disturbance events and wildlife disease.

University of Queensland

2023-2024: Samuel Becker: Water dragon social behaviour and fungal transmission.

University of Edinburgh

2021: Claudia Acerini: Body size, parasitism, and survival in wild young red deer.

2018: Marie Devilliers: Hormones, Immunity, and Parasitism in Male Red Deer.

2017: Rosie Keith: Faecal Antibodies in Wild Red Deer.

2016: Sam Ebdon: Characterisation and Identification of Red Deer Nematode Parasites.

Reviewing

Journals:

Nature Climate Change, Nature Communications, Nature Ecology and Evolution, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Ecology Letters, eLife, PloS Computational Biology, Journal of Animal Ecology, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Royal Society Open Science, Methods in Ecology and Evolution, Animal Behaviour, Movement Ecology,  Ecography, One Earth, EcoHealth, Biology Letters, Cell Reports Medicine, Scientific Data, International Journal for Parasitology, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife, Scientific Reports, Journal of Applied Ecology, BioEssays, PloS One, Communications Biology, Biological Conservation, Trends in Parasitology, Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, Global Health Research and Policy, Ecology and Evolution, Animal Conservation, the Journal of Medical Virology, Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment.

Grant organisations:

United States National Science Foundation Division of Environmental Biology, The Wellcome Trust DBT India Alliance Fellowship, the Dutch Research Council.