Nina Wedell is a professor of

evolutionary biology Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes such as natural selection, common descent, and speciation that produced the diversity of life on Earth. In the 1930s, the discipline of evolutionary biolo ...

at the

University of Exeter The University of Exeter is a research university in the West Country of England, with its main campus in Exeter, Devon. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School of ...

in the United Kingdom. She was appointed as the Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow in 2019. She will investigate the evolutionary dynamics of sexual conflict and insecticide resistance genes at the University of Melbourne. Professor Wedell has pioneered the field of sexual selection, and is best known for her research on female multiple mating,

polyandry Polyandry (; ) is a form of polygamy in which a woman takes two or more husbands at the same time. Polyandry is contrasted with polygyny, involving one male and two or more females. If a marriage involves a plural number of "husbands and wives ...

. Her work has encompassed many insect systems including butterflies, moths, and flies.

Education and career

Wedell has a BSc (1984), an MSc (1986), a PhD (1993), and D.Sc. (1997) from

Stockholm University Stockholm University (SU) () is a public university, public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, social ...

. Following her PhD, she was a postdoc at the

University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...

from 1993 until 1996. Subsequently, she held research positions at Stockholm University and the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

. She took a position at the

in 2004 as the Royal Society University Research Fellow. She was promoted to professor in 2009. Since 2018, she has also been the Associate Dean for Research.

Research

Wedell's research focuses on the evolutionary role of

sexual conflict Sexual conflict or sexual antagonism occurs when the two sexes have conflicting optimal fitness (biology), fitness strategies concerning reproduction, particularly over the mode and frequency of mating, potentially leading to an evolutionary arms ...

. Her research has demonstrated the role of selfish genetic elements in reproductive biology using interdisciplinary approaches from evolutionary, behavioral and molecular sciences.

Selected publications

* * * *Lindholm, A. K., Dyer, K. A., Firman, R. C., Fishman, L., Forstmeier, W., Holman, L., ... & Price, T. A. (2016). The ecology and evolutionary dynamics of meiotic drive. ''Trends in ecology & evolution'', ''31'' (4), 315–326.

Awards

She was awarded the

Australian Laureate Fellowship The Australian Laureate Fellowship is an Australian professorial research fellowship awarded by the Australian Research Council. Fellows are chosen each year for five-year awards. In 2023 8 industry-focused Laureate Fellowships were awarded for the ...

as recognition for her work in evolutionary biology. She received the Royal Society Wolfson Award in 2011. In 2012, she was elected President of the International Society of Behavioural Ecology. The

European Molecular Biology Organization The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is a professional, non-profit organization of more than 2,100 life scientists. Its goal is to promote research in life science and enable international exchange between scientists. It co-funds cour ...

elected her as a life-long member in 2014. She is the President-Elect of the European Society of Evolutionary Biology, named in 2015.

References

External links

* Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Academics of the University of Exeter Women evolutionary biologists Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holders Stockholm University alumni {{Biologist-stub