I am a behavioural and evolutionary ecologist, fascinated by sexual selection and biodiversity of arthropods, especially insects and arachnids.

My PhD (at the University of Western Australia) dealt with alternative reproductive tactics and male weapons in terrestrial arthropods, and since then I've been studying the evolution of mating systems and phenotypic plasticity in these animals, often using experimental evolution. I worked as a postdoctoral research associate at UWA for five years, where I studied dung beetles, earwigs, bulb mites and Australian quacking frogs, always focusing on these amazing animals' reproductive biology.

I then moved to Macquarie University, where I was based for two years, convening a first year biology unit. More recently, before starting at Flinders University, I spent two years working part-time as an environmental consultant, focusing on the biodiversity of short-range endemic invertebrates and subterranean fauna of the Pilbara and Goldfields regions of Western Australia, which steered some of my research towards the conservation of terrestrial invertebrates. One of the highlights of my research in this area was the discovery of the first true millipede — a species with more than 1,000 legs.

Finally, I also have an ongoing project, funded by National Geographic, on the movement ecology of the famous Sydney Funnel-Web Spider.