Hi, I’m Alison! 👋😄
👩💻 🪸 I am a palaeoecologist at the University of Oxford, primarily interested in applying quantitative palaeoecology approaches to conservation palaeobiology questions.
🌍 I am currently a Schmidt AI in Science Postdoctoral Fellow. My research focuses on mass extinctions, the evolutionary and ecological pathways that allow animals to survive, and how we can use machine learning and AI to identify survival strategies and apply them to the current climate crisis.
News
23 October 2026 — Register now for the IFCRS Early Career Symposium!: Registration for the 5th IFCRS Early Career Symposium is now live! This year, we are excited to highlight ten early career speakers who are leading new advances in fossil and modern reef research. The symposium…
16 October 2026 — New paper in Current Biology.: From the E6 RCN team, we have published a new review on ecosystem engineering through the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition for the new Current Biology “Life and Earth” special issue. We outline key ecosystem engineering innovations that…
25 September 2026 — 5th Annual IFCRS Early Career Symposium: I am pleased to be organizing again this year the International Fossil and Coral Reef Society Early Career Symposium on 19 November. We are excited to highlight 10 early career researchers from across the world…
25 September 2026 — I am moving to the University of Oxford!: I have now joined the University of Oxford’s Department of Earth Sciences. For the next two years, as a Schmidt AI in Science Fellow, I will be working at the intersection between quantitative palaeoecology and…
28 July 2026 — New paper on ecosystem engineering and biodiversity.: I am excited to share my newest publication, “Marine biodiversity was greater in the presence of ecosystem engineers throughout the Phanerozoic,” with Simon Darroch and William Gearty, which is officially published in Nature Communications today…
Recent publications
Ecosystem engineering, regime shifts and the rise of animals — Current Biology, 2026 (paper)
Marine biodiversity was greater in the presence of ecosystem engineers throughout the Phanerozoic — Nature Communications, 2026 (paper)
‘Earth system engineers’ and the cumulative impact of organisms in deep time — Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2025 (paper)
Tracking bioturbation through time: The evolution of the marine sedimentary mixed and transition layers — Science Advances, 2025 (paper)
How to engineer a habitable planet: the rise of marine ecosystem engineers through the Phanerozoic — Palaeontology, 2024 (paper)