This weeks PhDetails is with Jon Richardson! Jon is originally from Nottinghamshire, England and after doing his undergraduate degree in Zoology at the University of Edinburgh he decided to stay there to do his PhD in Evolutionary Biology. Jon’s work looks at how individual condition and resource availability affects decisions about investment to different aspects of reproduction. He has looked at how being inbred affects investment to competition and decisions about how many offspring to produce and how nutritional history affects mating behaviour. Jon’s study system is the burying beetle (Nicrophorus vespilloides) which is one of the few insect species that provides parental care. The burying beetle breeds on the carcasses of dead animals which makes it a really suitable system for examining how resource availability affects reproductive decisions. You can also fine Jon on twitter @JonERichardson!
Well let’s start of talking about completely unscientific stuff: What is your favourite band/musical artist pre 1980?
ABBA
Favourite band/musical artist post 1980?
Sara Bareilles or Noah and the Whale
Favourite movie (multiple choices are kind of okay ;))?
The Crucible
Where do you study and who is your supervisor?
I study at the University of Edinburgh and I’m supervised by Dr Per Smiseth (@persmiseth).
What year of your PhD are you in?
I recently started my third year
Who’s giving you the money – and for how long?
I am funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) as part of the Edinburgh Earth and Environment doctoral training partnership (E3 DTP) – I have 3.5 years of funding.
Do you have any publications – if so where?
Yes!
Richardson, J., & Smiseth, P. T. (2017). Intraspecific competition and inbreeding depression: increased competitive effort by inbred males is costly to outbred opponents. The American Naturalist, 189(5), 539-548.
Richardson, J., & Smiseth, P. T. (2017). Intraspecific competition and inbreeding depression: increased competitive effort by inbred males is costly to outbred opponents. The American Naturalist, 189(5), 539-548.
Richardson, J., Comin, P., & Smiseth, P. T. (2018). Inbred burying beetles suffer fitness costs from making poor decisions. Proc. R. Soc. B, 285(1881), 20180419.
Richardson, J., & Smiseth, P. T. (2018). Effects of variation in resource acquisition during different stages of the life cycle on life‐history traits and trade‐offs in a burying beetle. Journal of Evolutionary Biology.
You can check out my google scholar profile for other papers I have co-authored. https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=TiVl1O4AAAAJ&hl=en
Did you do a masters – where was it and was it about?
No – I came straight from undergrad to PhD
How many PhDs did you apply for – what were you looking for?
I applied for two PhDs – I knew I wanted to work on behaviour in a tractable lab system.
What one piece of advice would you give to a masters student applying to PhDs now?
To remember that a PhD project is something you shape as you go along so don’t worry if you feel like you don’t have any new ideas at the beginning.
How often do you meet with your supervisors?
We have regular meetings once every two weeks plus additional meetings/chats over coffee
What supervisor traits are important to you?
I think being a supervisor is a tough job because the best supervisors balance giving their student the freedom to develop their own ideas, skills and writing style etc. whilst also being a voice of caution and providing feedback/critiques to help them improve.
I also think it is important to have a supervisor that is excited by and celebrates your achievements!
What do you think are the worst supervisor traits?
Unhelpful feedback – writing “UGH” on a manuscript draft doesn’t help anyone learn how to improve!
In one sentence what is your PhD about?
How does individual condition and resource availability influence reproductive decisions and life history?
What are the best and worst bits about your labwork?
The best thing about lab work is getting to work with such an interesting study species – burying beetles and their behaviour are fascinating! They are one of the few insects to provide parental care. Because they breed on rotten corpses people assume the worst thing about our lab is the smell – but actually burying beetles are very good at preserving carcasses against decay so no bad smells! (although you may still need a strong stomach)
What is the most bodged piece of equipment you have had to use during labwork – did it work?
My experiments often involve “rustic” equipment including using dental floss to tether beetles and food dye to colour beetle eggs. So far, everything has worked out after a bit of trial and error.
What has been your academic highlight of the last year?
Winning a prize for a conference talk – tangible achievements are useful anchors when there are setbacks and imposter syndrome sets in.
Have you had an academic lowpoint of the last year – if so what happened?
Nothing specific but academia is a rollercoaster – papers get rejected, experiments fail – I think the best strategy is to acknowledge them and learn what you can. Some PhD students in my department organised a session to talk about funny disasters during your PhD which was a great way of normalising failure. It happens to everyone!
Which academic idol/scientist have you met?
Peter and Rosemary Grant – it was so interesting to hear about their long-term work with Darwin’s Finches in the Galapagos.
Which academic idol/scientist would you most like to meet?
Marlene Zuk – I think her work on sexual selection and host-parasite interactions is fascinating and her TED talk on the lives of insects is excellent! I would also like to meet my favourite science writer – Ed Yong – he would have some amazing stories about the scientists whose work he has written about.
Who has been your academic role model/inspiration and why?
My supervisor Per Smiseth is a great role model because of his passion and enthusiasm for all aspects of animal behaviour and evolutionary biology. He is also very thoughtful, fair and principled which is encouraging because it means you can succeed in academia whilst still being a nice person! I also look up to Dr Natalie Pilakouta, a former PhD student in the burying beetle lab, who helped me a lot as an undergraduate.
Do you have a favourite paper?
I have lots! But there are two that spring to mind as being quite formative to my scientific career.
Malte Andersson’s 1982 paper on female choice for extreme tail length in widowbirds – such a clever and elegant experiment!
Arie van Noordwijk and Gerdien de Jong’s 1986 paper on how individual variation in resource acquisition can mask life-history trade-offs. I adore the definition for life-history theory it contains: “an elaborate answer to the simple question of why having more offspring is not always selected for”.
What has been your favourite conference so far – why?
I went to the 24th EMPSEB (European Meeting for PhD Students in Evolutionary Biology) this year in Bubion, Granada, Spain and had a fantastic time. This is a conference organised by and for PhD students and has a fun and relaxed atmosphere, which combined with interesting talks and a beautiful location makes for an excellent conference! I highly recommend it to any evolutionary biology PhD students
What hours do you typically work?
I am generally a 9 to 5-er. Although I do not think it is helpful to compare your working hours to other people – pick a schedule that works for you!
How do you avoid procrastinating?
I’m usually pretty aware of when I’m not being productive so I try to use that time to take a break and recharge or do something like general lab work that doesn’t require as much brainpower.
What motivates you in your day to day PhD life?
Day-to-day interactions with other PhD students – hearing about what other people have been doing is a great way to remind yourself why you are interested in your field and make you feel less alone in your struggles
What do you do when you’re not working – how do you balance it with your PhD?
I’m lucky to work in a very fun and social department where people regularly get together for drinks after work – it’s great to catch up and relax at the end of the day. I also love to read – and I’m slowly working on writing my own novel. I go to museums, the cinema and theatre a lot. Edinburgh is also a beautiful city to just wander around and explore.
If a genie could grant you one wish to help with your PhD what would you wish for?
More time! More money! I have lot of ideas I would love to explore and lots of conferences I wish I could go to but I don’t have the time or resources.
What would be your dream job?
A PI with my own lab. I also think it would be cool to write popular science books about the weird world of animal behaviour.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Hopefully having a great time as a post-doc
One word to sum up your future in academia:
Optimistic
What do you want to achieve outside of academia in the coming year?
I’d like to do some travelling especially to Iceland, Canada or the US.
What essential tool hardware/software could you not do your PhD without?
Do beetles count as hardware? If not, R and a computer to write manuscripts on.
Where is somewhere you would like to work in the future?
I am open to working anywhere but I think there is lots of exciting work coming out of groups in France, Australia and the US.
Do you have a favourite organism – what is it and why – is it different from your study organism(s)?
My study organism, the burying beetle (Nicrophorus vespilloides), is my favourite example of parental care in insects. This system is both gross and fascinating as the beetles rear their offspring in the carcasses of dead animals. They act as grave-diggers, barbers, and surgeons as both parents work together to chew off any fur, roll the carcass into a ball, cover it in secretions that prevent decay, and bury it under the soil away from competitors. Larvae beg for food by touching their parent’s face and parents feed them by regurgitating some pre-digested carrion. The behaviour and life history of these insects is just fascinating.
Are there any social interactions/meetings which have enhanced your PhD experience e.g. social seminars/group meetings?
I’m lucky to work in a very social department where everyone from professors to PhD students have coffee breaks/lunch together and there are happy hours every other Friday to bring everyone together to catch up and relax.
If you could change one thing about your group/department structure what would it be?
I’m not a big believer in people from the same lab group being hidden away in their own office – one of the benefits of being in a department where people work on a diverse range of subjects and systems is the new things we can learn from each other and it seems a shame to miss out on that.
What major question in your subject area is yet to be addressed – why is it important and why isn’t anyone addressing it?
The question of why we don’t always see the trade-offs between traits like reproduction and survival that we expect is a long-standing one but potentially accounting for the social and environmental conditions individuals actually experience outside of the lab will be a promising place to explore.
I also think there must be some weird and wonderful behaviours out there that could become new model systems to answer all sorts of evolutionary questions but we just need to find them first!
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