Hywel Williams
Postdoctoral Research Associate
- Computational Biology Group
- School of Computing Sciences
- University of East Anglia
- Norwich
- NR4 7TJ
- UK
- +44 (0) 1603 592907
News
15/16 Feb 2010 – We will be hosting a workshop on evolutionary and ecological processes in the Earth system – please enquire if you are interested in attending.
Winter 2009 – Our work was featured in the latest edition of the NERC research magazine Planet Earth (Rebels with a cause). A forthcoming paper in Oikos will describe this work in detail.
9/3/09 – Our work on artificial ecosystem selection (see Williams & Lenton PNAS 2007) was featured in this week’s New Scientist.
Research
I am interested in using evolutionary simulation modelling to address questions in evolution, ecology, and Earth system science. In particular, I am interested in the intersection between these three areas, i.e., the coevolution of life and its physical environment. I use individual-based ecosystem models (e.g., the Flask model of microbial evolutionary ecology -- see here for a popular overview of this work and here for a recent(ish) presentation describing the main points) to explore the dynamic interactions between evolving organisms and the environment. Current work is looking at nonlinear transitions in ecosystem behaviour driven by evolutionary innovation or external forcing. Other recent work has explored the evolutionary emergence of environmental regulation and other Gaian phenomena such as nutrient recycling and ecological robustness. I am also involved with the ADAM project, which is building an adaptive model of the marine ecosystem in the Archaean period of Earth history. In support of my modelling work I am beginning to carry out laboratory experiments with microbial microcosms formed from naturally sampled sediment and pond water. The microcosms are based on Winogradsky columns - we formed the Winogradsky Group to link interested people. If you are interested in any of these ideas you might like to take a look at the Adaptive Modelling Club, a reading group that I convene at UEA.
Previous work
From October 2007 until August 2009 I worked on the NERC QUEST project, seeking to develop and apply methods for quantifying the effects of feedbacks in biogeochemical cycles. I have previously worked on computational modelling of neuronal networks, artificial intelligence, and evolutionary robotics.Other activities
In 2007 I co-organised a workshop on Extending the Darwinian Framework at the ECAL conference in Lisbon. In 2008 I organised a session on ‘Models for Gaia Theory’ at the ALIFE XI conference in Winchester, UK. In 2009 I attended the European Society for Evolutionary Biology meeting in Turin and the European Conference on Artificial Life meeting in Budapest, amongst others. At ECAL I co-organised a session on levels of selection in evolution.
Biography
I studied maths at the University of Birmingham, then computer science at the University of Leeds. This was followed by an MSc in Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems in what was formerly COGS at the University of Sussex. My Phd work was in the Biosystems group of the University of Leeds, supervised by Dr Jason Noble (now of University of Southampton). I then spent 3 years as a postdoc working with Prof Tim Lenton in the Earth System Modelling Group at University of East Anglia.
In my free time I play hockey and other sports, and like to travel. I live in Norwich with my partner Abby. Our baby boy, Ben, was born in October 2008.
PhDs/PostDocs
I am always interested to hear from people wanting to do a PhD or postdoc in my research area. At the moment I have a PhD project advertised on Evolutionary interactions between life and its environment. Please get in touch if you are interested in this or a related topic.