Stu West

Professor of Evolutionary Biology

Research Interests

I am an evolutionary biologist whose main interest is adaptation, and especially the evolution of social behaviours, such as cooperation, altruism, spite, mutualism, parasite virulence and sex allocation. I use a mixture of techniques including theory, experiment and across species comparative studies. My empirical work has utilised a range of organisms, including bacteria, protozoa, insects (especially parasitoid wasps), fish, birds and mammals. For the most up to date information on what is happening within my research group, see my publications page.

Additional Information

I am an editor at the American Naturalist, Evolution and the Journal of Evolutionary Biology. I am the Department of Zoology's Athena Swan Champion.

Contacts

Email:

stuart.west@zoo.ox.ac.uk

Websites

http://www.zoo.ox.ac.uk/group/west/index.html

Selected Publications

Davies, N.B., Krebs, J.R. & West, S.A. (2012) An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology. Wiley-Blackwell.
Cornwallis, C.K., West, S.A., Davies, K.E. & Grifin, A.S. (2010) Promiscuity and the evolutionary transition to complex societies. Nature 466, 969-972.
West, S.A. & Gardner, A. (2010) Altruism, spite and greenbeards. Science 327, 1341-1344.
Wild, G., Gardner, A. & West, S.A. (2009) Adaptation and the evolution of parasite virulence in a connected world. Nature 459, 983-986.
Kümmerli, R., Burton-Chellew, M.N., Ross-Gillespie, A. & West, S.A. (2010) Resistance to extreme strategies, rather than prosocial preferences, can explain human cooperation in public goods games. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA 107, 10125-10130.
West, S.A. (2009) Sex Allocation. Princeton University Press (Monograph in Population Biology Series).
West, S.A., Griffin, A.S. & Gardner, A. (2007) Social semantics: altruism, cooperation, mutualism, strong reciprocity and group selection. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 20, 415-432.
Diggle, S.P., Griffin, A.S., Campbell, G.S. & West, S.A. (2007) Cooperation and conflict in quorum-sensing bacterial populations. Nature 450, 411-414

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