Dr Conner Philson

About me:

Through research, biological field stations, and science policy, I work to better understand and conserve our planet’s biodiversity and natural environments.

I am an evolutionary behavioural ecologist interested in the drivers, consequences, and evolution of social behaviour. My research centers around long-term research projects on free-living populations of mammals.

I am currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Dr. Lauren Brent in the Centre for Research in Animal Behaviour at the University of Exeter. As part of the ERC funded FriendOrigins project, I study the drivers of social strcutre, multilevel selection on the social phenotype, and how individuals structure groups (and vice versa) in a variety of free-living non-human primates.

I received my Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from UCLA in 2023. Studying in the Blumstein Lab, my dissertation was on the evolution of individual social position and group social structure with a multilevel selection perspective. I conducted this work in a wild, free-living population of yellow-bellied marmots studied annually since 1962 at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL) in Colorado, USA.

I am also a principal investigator and Instructor at the RMBL where I am continuing my research on multilevel selection and evolution of marmot sociality, teaching Rocky Mountain Wildlife (an undergraduate field course), and serving on the RMBL Research Committee. I also serve on the Borad of Directors for the Orgnization of Biological Field Stations and am an Assistant Editor-in-Chief at the Journal of Science Policy and Goverance.

I am broadly interested in the drivers, consequences, and evolution of social behaviour. My research leverages a multidisciplinary approach and a variety of statistical tools to ask questions
across taxa in ecology & evolutionary biology. My primary areas include:

Animal Behavior & Networks

• What are the fitness consequences of individual social relationships and group social structure?
• What drives variation in individual and group social traits?
• How does individual behavior structure groups and in turn, how do group structures drive individual behaviors?

Evolution & Natural Selection

• Why do animals live in groups?
• How does natural and multilevel selection shape individual and group social behaviors in the wild?
• How are individual and group social traits replicated?

Collaboration & Mentoring
Through collaboration with peers and mentoring undergraduates in the lab/field, I've worked on a variety of topics and questions:

• Major evolutionary transitions & information
• Risk assessment in giant clams
• The social microbiome
• Quantitative genetics of dispersal decisions
• Leveraging emotions to promote environmentally friendly behavior

Science Policy
Leveraging both science for policy and policy for science, I have published a number of peer-reviewed policy memos, served as a science advisor to elected leaders in the United States, and served on the Board of Directors for the Organization of Biological Field Stations.

2023: Ph.D. – Ecology and Evolutionarily Biology – UCLA (Advisor: Dr. Daniel T. Blumstein)

2023: M.B.A. Certificate – University of California, San Diego

2019: B.S. – Biology – Radford University