Dr Michal Tomasz Jezierski

• BA in Biological Sciences (First Class), University of Oxford
• DPhil in Zoology, University of Oxford

His research focuses on the evolution of the ‘island syndrome’ – the similarity in biology of island organisms worldwide, thought to be brought about by shared conditions on world’s islands. He began investigating the island syndrome as part of his undergraduate research and he is now continuing it as a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in Birmingham.

His research focuses on two separate approaches:

i) using phylogenetic comparative methods on global datasets, to understand the biogeographic and phylogenetic patterns of the evolution of the islands syndrome.

ii) using field studies in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland, to understand how bird populations (St Kilda Wrens and Rock Doves) adapt to life on islands.