This week’s PhDetails is with Rowan Schley, a NERC DTP PhD student interested in the evolution, biogeography and conservation of tropical biodiversity based at Imperial College, London. Rowan says he is enthralled by the diversity of life on our planet, so his research is broadly centred around speciation. More specifically, he uses population genomics, phylogenomics, and field data collected from the Amazon to try to understand the origins of Neotropical plant diversity, using the Brownea clade (Fabaceae) as a study system. Rowan sees himself as a naturalist rather than ‘just’ a zoologist or a botanist, and he has studied speciation in a range of taxa, including cichlids, orchids and tropical trees.
Hmm… I’ve got to say Bad Brains. Or maybe Frank Zappa. And who could forget the majesty and artistic beauty of ol’ Jimi? All three of these bands could transcend genres with super-honest writing and virtuosity, and so it’s hard to choose!
Favourite band/musical artist post 1980?
Well, at the moment I’m listening to a TON of Thundercat, Hiatus Kaiyote and Jeff Buckley. The Chili Peppers are probably in there somewhere, too. Again, utter soul and super-musicianship mixed with the ability to transcend genres.
Favourite movies?
Into the Wild. It affected me hugely, and I love the soundtrack. Also, Lion King and Lord of the Rings. Just because.
Where do you study and who is/are your supervisors?
I’m a DTP-er, co-supervised by Bente Klitgaard/Felix Forest at RBG Kew, as well as Tim Barraclough at Imperial.
What year of your PhD are you in?
4th (write-up time!)
Who’s giving you the money – and for how long?
The NERC SSCP DTP, which is channelled through the Grantham Institute at Imperial. I’m funded for 3.5 years.
Do you have any publications – if so where?
Yep, a few so far, and one in review. I’m super lucky to be able to work with lots of super interesting and productive biologists, a few of whom have papers that I’m co-author on:
1 - Is Amazonia a ‘museum’ for Neotropical trees? The evolution of the Brownea clade (Detarioideae, Leguminosae) (Schley et al., 2018). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 126, 279-292)
2 - Australasian orchid biogeography at continental scale: molecular phylogenetic insights from the sun orchids (Thelymitra, Orchidaceae). (Nauheimer et al., 2018). Molecular phylogenetics and Evolution
3 - On the Monophyly of Macrolobium Schreb., an Ecologically Diverse Neotropical Tree Genus (Fabaceae-Detarioideae) (Murphy et al., 2017). International Journal of Plant Sciences
2 - Australasian orchid biogeography at continental scale: molecular phylogenetic insights from the sun orchids (Thelymitra, Orchidaceae). (Nauheimer et al., 2018). Molecular phylogenetics and Evolution
3 - On the Monophyly of Macrolobium Schreb., an Ecologically Diverse Neotropical Tree Genus (Fabaceae-Detarioideae) (Murphy et al., 2017). International Journal of Plant Sciences
And in the works:
Did you do a masters – where was it and was it about?
I did MSc Ecology, Evolution and Conservation at Imperial.
Do you do fieldwork? What is the best fieldwork you have ever done and what made it great?
Oooooh yes. To me, fieldwork is essential to get an idea of your system in context and is one of the best parts of being a biologist. My best fieldwork experience was probably my PhD fieldwork, working in Yasuni national park in the Ecuadorian Amazon (which is home to the highest diversity of species ever measured on this planet!). The sheer diversity, and the fact that I have been obsessed with the Amazon for my entire life, made this a transcendent experience. I can safely say that I literally jumped for joy when I saw some of the species that I have always wanted to see, including Thumbnail dart frogs (Ranitomeya ventrimaculata), scarlet macaws (Ara macao), giant Kapok trees (Ceiba pentandra), Hercules beetles (Dynastes sp.), along with charismatic megafauna like black caiman, tapirs, anacondas, boas, two-toed sloths and, finally, a forest pool filled with cichlids, characins, killifish, Corydoras and all manor of beautiful little fish- it was like an aquarium!
A close second is seeing wild Orang-utan, blood pythons, gibbons, hornbills and Wallaces flying frogs during fieldwork I did in Borneo! Or maybe my first (much anticipated) experience in the tropics, in tropical North Queensland, Australia? I don’t know, I love fieldwork!
How many PhDs did you apply for – what were you looking for?
Only this one! It matched my interests and experience perfectly, and it was sufficiently broad to allow me to develop it according to my own interests. I was really lucky! Funnily enough, I saw it advertised while I was on fieldwork in Borneo and thought “PERFECT!”!
What is the most bodged piece of equipment you have had to use during fieldwork – did it work?
Ghetto pole shears that barely worked because they’re filled with gritty Amazonian clay. That, or an incredibly heavy ladder that we carried through the forest to try to collect branches that were very high up a tree. Needless to say, this didn’t work, was super dangerous (since we tried tying the ladder to the tree, while it balanced precariously on a slope) and we ended up naming the ladder “la escalera del diablo” (the devil’s ladder) because it was utter hell to carry through the forest.
What one piece of advice would you give to a masters student applying to PhDs now?
The advice that I was given was to focus on your MSc to the best of your ability, and then look for PhDs afterwards (but that’s assuming circumstances are favourable), because you only really get one chance to do well at your MSc. Other than that, just go for a project that you are absolutely in love with, especially if it lets you learn new and valuable skills (e.g., genomics, mathematical modelling in R, Linux, Python, etc).
How often do you meet with your supervisors?
Once a week for lunch with my Kew supervisors, and once a month with my Imperial supervisor.
What supervisor traits are important to you?
I have been lucky in that I have had supervisors who have allowed me to develop my own ideas, without being overbearing. I also think that it’s important to have a supervisor who you can meet with on a regular basis, to make sure that you aren’t going too off-piste, with direct experience in the particular sub-field that you’re working in so that you can know then your ideas are a bit too outlandish.
What do you think are the worst supervisor traits?
Supervisors that are too overbearing, and don’t let you explore your own interests.
In one sentence what is your PhD about?
Examining the diversification of the Amazonian tree flora using the pan-Amazonian Brownea clade (Fabaceae) as a study system.
What has been your academic highlight of the last year?
Publishing my first paper as lead author and winning first prize for my talk based on that work at the Young Systematists Forum.
Have you had an academic lowpoint of the last year – if so what happened?
When UPS lost my ENTIRE SEQUENCING LIBRARY that I sent off for sequencing. An entire six months of work (plus fieldwork), sat thawing in some Norwegian warehouse. Luckily, I had just enough library to clean and take to Norway for sequencing by hand, upon instruction from my supervisor! The flights cost less that it did to send them with UPS in the first place anyway…
Which academic idol/scientist have you met?
I met Alexandre Antonelli last year, and he’s a really nice guy. I really identify with his work because his lab asks broad, super-interesting questions about the evolution of Neotropical diversity in a range of taxa, which appeals to my broad interests. I also met Matt Fisher at a symposium my colleagues and I organised, which was brilliant as I’ve been interested in the fight against Chytrid for a long time.
Which academic idol/scientist would you most like to meet?
Probably one of the Pantheon of speciation research gods, like Dolph Schluter, Roger Butlin, Axel Meyer, Patrick Nosil, Ole Seehausen or Jim Mallet. Or maybe a conservation/tropical ecology hero like E. O. Wilson or Terry Hughes.
Do you have a favourite paper?
“The contrasting nature of woody plant species in different neotropical forest biomes reflects differences in ecological stability” (Pennington & Lavin, 2015) New Phytologist.
It’s just such an interesting treatise on how the huge population sizes of rainforest trees can help to explain why they rarely resolve into monophyletic groups due to the non-coalescence of genes and effective gene flow. It has contributed a lot to my own ideas during my PhD.
What has been your favourite conference so far – why?
Montpellier 2018, just for the vast array of different topics on offer.
What hours do you typically work?
9ish – 6:30ish
How do you avoid procrastinating?
I find it super useful to make a list of concrete goals that I want to achieve, to prevent myself from just floating around without any objectives. I find it’s often useful to switch task if you’ve reached an impasse in what you’re doing, and you keep getting distracted. It’s amazing how effective that is.
What motivates you in your day to day PhD life?
The potential of finding out something new, even if it’s minor. I love the feeling of patching that into the bigger picture. Again, if you have a set of objectives for that day, then it feels really good to achieve those, so that’s a bit of extra motivation.
What do you do when you’re not working – how do you balance it with your PhD?
Anything outdoors, especially climbing, freediving, hiking and botanizing/looking for cool creatures, etc. Unfortunately, I don’t get to do a lot of that in London, so I have a fair-sized community of tropical plants sitting happily on my windowsill to compensate. I also love aquaria, although living in London has prevented me from having one (my big aquarium is at home with my parents!). We’re lucky enough to have a nice garden in my house-share, so I grow a whole range of veg during the summer, too. As well as all that, making music is a huge part of my life, whether it’s with other people or recording my own stuff.
If a genie could grant you one wish to help with your PhD what would you wish for?
I wish I knew which insect, bat and hummingbird species pollinated all of the tree species I am studying, as well as their specific microhabitats/soil conditions.
What would be your dream job?
Something that links hardcore evolutionary biology with a potent conservation output. Maybe working on the evolutionary history, population genomics and conservation of some strange endemic plant species, or maybe on something looking at evolution and conservation of coral reef species/endangered amphibians in the context of climate change. Another dream project would be to study shark population/conservation genomics somewhere with a super-high population density of sharks, like Galapagos or Cocos island. But to be honest, I’ll be happy with any job where I can get paid to study how the natural world works.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Second postdoc/fellowship, hopefully somewhere good doing something that I really care about.
One word to sum up your future in academia:
Adventure
What do you want to achieve outside of academia in the coming year?
To go to Komodo or Raja Ampat, maybe. And to play more gigs.
What essential tool hardware/software could you not do your PhD without?
A Linux machine.
Who has been your academic role model/inspiration and why?
I am inspired by a number of people, and the common theme among all of them is that they test broad hypotheses using a range of taxa –the most amazing thing about nature is its diversity and interconnectedness, so I think it’s important to have a holistic view (a la Alexander von Humboldt). I’m also inspired by the people who seem to be infinitely more productive per unit time than I am, like Oscar Perez, a post doc in my lab at Kew.
Where is somewhere you would like to work in the future?
I really like the idea of working at Stanford, Cornell or Harvard- there are a disproportionate number of amazing labs there. As well as that, I like the idea of balancing world-class academia with an outdoor lifestyle, so to be honest I’d like to work anywhere I can spend a lot of time in the wilderness outside of work.
Do you have a favourite organism – what is it and why – is it different from your study organisms?
In short, no. I find myself captivated by organisms from across the tree of life. That’s a real cop-out, but hey, it’s honest!
Are there any social interactions/meetings which have enhanced your PhD experience?
Young Systematists Forum is always a blast, as they really encourage young scientists. I really enjoy learning about the vast range of taxa and questions that everyone works on. I also like the stuff that the Linnaean Society organises.
If you could change one thing about your group/department structure what would it be?
I’d like a desk in the Palm House.
What major question in your subject area is yet to be addressed – why is it important and why isn’t anyone addressing it?
Thus far, no one has tested the predictions made by my favourite paper, mentioned above. I’d love someone to do a massive study on thousands of tree species, comparing the patterns of coalescence and reproductive isolation between rainforest environments and dryer environments (like savanna or dry forest). I’d love to know whether selection acts in different ways in these two different environments, the role of introgression, and by which mechanisms genetic diversity is structured (e.g., through dispersal, pollination, through seasonal extremes). Of course, the data collection alone would be hellish, with multiple individuals needed for each of the thousands of species from a broad range of remote and inaccessible areas. That said, I’m sure there’s someone that can leverage museum collections/herbaria/living collections to do that as well as doing fieldwork.
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