Matthew Silk
@mattjsilk.bsky.social
Research Fellow in the Institute of Ecology and Evolution at University of Edinburgh. Social networks, behaviour, disease, demography and some wildlife photos.
Reposted by Matthew Silk
Two fully-funded PhD openings in my research group at the University of York.
If you’re excited about viromes, phage biology, Nanopore sequencing, soils and the odd bit of alpine or agricultural field sampling, we’d love to hear from you!
🌱🦠🏔️
tiny.cc/c4pv001
tiny.cc/e4pv001
If you’re excited about viromes, phage biology, Nanopore sequencing, soils and the odd bit of alpine or agricultural field sampling, we’d love to hear from you!
🌱🦠🏔️
tiny.cc/c4pv001
tiny.cc/e4pv001
A Farewell to Arms: The Trade-off Between Growth and Defence in Bacteria (York YBDTP Project) at University of York on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - A Farewell to Arms: The Trade-off Between Growth and Defence in Bacteria (York YBDTP Project) at University of York, listed on FindAPhD.com
tiny.cc
November 27, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Two fully-funded PhD openings in my research group at the University of York.
If you’re excited about viromes, phage biology, Nanopore sequencing, soils and the odd bit of alpine or agricultural field sampling, we’d love to hear from you!
🌱🦠🏔️
tiny.cc/c4pv001
tiny.cc/e4pv001
If you’re excited about viromes, phage biology, Nanopore sequencing, soils and the odd bit of alpine or agricultural field sampling, we’d love to hear from you!
🌱🦠🏔️
tiny.cc/c4pv001
tiny.cc/e4pv001
Reposted by Matthew Silk
🌍📢 Postdoc alert | 3-yr starting early 2026
Please 🔁!
Understand how ecosystem stability is changing across space and through time using niche modelling, pinpoint at-risk species/regions, and build tools that drive conservation action🌿🧭📈
👉 tinyurl.com/2mafwru3
#Ecology #Jobs #Biodiversity
Please 🔁!
Understand how ecosystem stability is changing across space and through time using niche modelling, pinpoint at-risk species/regions, and build tools that drive conservation action🌿🧭📈
👉 tinyurl.com/2mafwru3
#Ecology #Jobs #Biodiversity
November 26, 2025 at 2:47 PM
🌍📢 Postdoc alert | 3-yr starting early 2026
Please 🔁!
Understand how ecosystem stability is changing across space and through time using niche modelling, pinpoint at-risk species/regions, and build tools that drive conservation action🌿🧭📈
👉 tinyurl.com/2mafwru3
#Ecology #Jobs #Biodiversity
Please 🔁!
Understand how ecosystem stability is changing across space and through time using niche modelling, pinpoint at-risk species/regions, and build tools that drive conservation action🌿🧭📈
👉 tinyurl.com/2mafwru3
#Ecology #Jobs #Biodiversity
Another new animal social network paper just out in @asab.org Animal Behaviour: How can we make the most of generative network models in behavioural ecology research?
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...
A lot of fun to help @jbbrask.bsky.social and @drwhale.bsky.social put this together!
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...
A lot of fun to help @jbbrask.bsky.social and @drwhale.bsky.social put this together!
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...
November 26, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Another new animal social network paper just out in @asab.org Animal Behaviour: How can we make the most of generative network models in behavioural ecology research?
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...
A lot of fun to help @jbbrask.bsky.social and @drwhale.bsky.social put this together!
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...
A lot of fun to help @jbbrask.bsky.social and @drwhale.bsky.social put this together!
doi.org/10.1016/j.an...
Its very exciting to see this paper out in @behavecol.bsky.social. These conversations, expertly led by @delphinedemoor.bsky.social, have really shaped how I now think about working with social network data. Check out Delphine's thread to learn more!
Excited to introduce the Latent Layers Framework – now out in @behavecol.bsky.social – to help think through when and why network differences confound inference in (comparative) social network analysis! 🧵
tinyurl.com/3k3yahwy
tinyurl.com/3k3yahwy
November 26, 2025 at 4:37 PM
Its very exciting to see this paper out in @behavecol.bsky.social. These conversations, expertly led by @delphinedemoor.bsky.social, have really shaped how I now think about working with social network data. Check out Delphine's thread to learn more!
Reposted by Matthew Silk
Interested in how life history may shape the gut microbiome of a wild mammal? Keen on getting to work with an iconic long-term study system in Scotland?
Check out this PhD opportunity with me, Josephine Pemberton and @gfalbery.bsky.social
Reach out to chat more!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Check out this PhD opportunity with me, Josephine Pemberton and @gfalbery.bsky.social
Reach out to chat more!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
November 24, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Interested in how life history may shape the gut microbiome of a wild mammal? Keen on getting to work with an iconic long-term study system in Scotland?
Check out this PhD opportunity with me, Josephine Pemberton and @gfalbery.bsky.social
Reach out to chat more!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Check out this PhD opportunity with me, Josephine Pemberton and @gfalbery.bsky.social
Reach out to chat more!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Reposted by Matthew Silk
Fully funded NERC GW4+ PhD Opportunity - *Understanding The Spread of Antimicrobial Resistance by Migratory Birds*
Supervised by me, @stubearhop.bsky.social (Exeter) & Patricia Brekke (ZSL). Application deadline 8th January. Please get in touch for more info
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Supervised by me, @stubearhop.bsky.social (Exeter) & Patricia Brekke (ZSL). Application deadline 8th January. Please get in touch for more info
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
November 17, 2025 at 6:06 AM
Fully funded NERC GW4+ PhD Opportunity - *Understanding The Spread of Antimicrobial Resistance by Migratory Birds*
Supervised by me, @stubearhop.bsky.social (Exeter) & Patricia Brekke (ZSL). Application deadline 8th January. Please get in touch for more info
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Supervised by me, @stubearhop.bsky.social (Exeter) & Patricia Brekke (ZSL). Application deadline 8th January. Please get in touch for more info
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Reposted by Matthew Silk
My lab at Indiana University is searching for a *postdoc* and *technician* to contribute to our work studying the evolution of social behavior using fruit flies as a model system. Details below, feel free to email me with any questions! More info on our research: saltzlab.com
November 5, 2025 at 4:56 PM
My lab at Indiana University is searching for a *postdoc* and *technician* to contribute to our work studying the evolution of social behavior using fruit flies as a model system. Details below, feel free to email me with any questions! More info on our research: saltzlab.com
Reposted by Matthew Silk
PhD advert alert!
Come work with me at Edinburgh.
I'm advertising a PhD on: "Predicting responses of birds to climate change", competition funded through the E5 DTP. Would suit those with an interest in predicting responses to climate change, birds, or both.
e5-dtp.ed.ac.uk/project?item...
Come work with me at Edinburgh.
I'm advertising a PhD on: "Predicting responses of birds to climate change", competition funded through the E5 DTP. Would suit those with an interest in predicting responses to climate change, birds, or both.
e5-dtp.ed.ac.uk/project?item...
October 22, 2025 at 12:58 PM
PhD advert alert!
Come work with me at Edinburgh.
I'm advertising a PhD on: "Predicting responses of birds to climate change", competition funded through the E5 DTP. Would suit those with an interest in predicting responses to climate change, birds, or both.
e5-dtp.ed.ac.uk/project?item...
Come work with me at Edinburgh.
I'm advertising a PhD on: "Predicting responses of birds to climate change", competition funded through the E5 DTP. Would suit those with an interest in predicting responses to climate change, birds, or both.
e5-dtp.ed.ac.uk/project?item...
Reposted by Matthew Silk
Social relationships are powerful predictors of fitness across social animals. But *why*?
In our new @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social paper, we outline testable predictions for why relationship quality and quantity adaptively vary across socio-ecological contexts.
tinyurl.com/55dnkeh7
In our new @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social paper, we outline testable predictions for why relationship quality and quantity adaptively vary across socio-ecological contexts.
tinyurl.com/55dnkeh7
October 16, 2025 at 7:07 AM
Social relationships are powerful predictors of fitness across social animals. But *why*?
In our new @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social paper, we outline testable predictions for why relationship quality and quantity adaptively vary across socio-ecological contexts.
tinyurl.com/55dnkeh7
In our new @cp-trendsecolevo.bsky.social paper, we outline testable predictions for why relationship quality and quantity adaptively vary across socio-ecological contexts.
tinyurl.com/55dnkeh7
Reposted by Matthew Silk
I'm v excited to be recruiting a PhD student to work on badger behaviour and ecology! Starting date is March 2026; see the ad here, or message me for more details: www.gregalbery.me/s/March-2026...
October 3, 2025 at 2:05 PM
I'm v excited to be recruiting a PhD student to work on badger behaviour and ecology! Starting date is March 2026; see the ad here, or message me for more details: www.gregalbery.me/s/March-2026...
Reposted by Matthew Silk
Interested in simulating the kind of data that you might commonly find in evolutionary and ecological studies?
Then we have the R package for you - squidSim!!
Check our new preprint:
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Then we have the R package for you - squidSim!!
Check our new preprint:
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
squidSim: a flexible R package for structured and reproducible simulations in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
ecoevorxiv.org
September 15, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Interested in simulating the kind of data that you might commonly find in evolutionary and ecological studies?
Then we have the R package for you - squidSim!!
Check our new preprint:
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Then we have the R package for you - squidSim!!
Check our new preprint:
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Torness this morning 06:07-09:21:
1 arctic skua, 29 manxies, 82 sandwich, 8 arctic, 6 common and 7 commic terns, 59 fulmar, 27 common scoter, 1 velvet scoter, barwit and 3 whimbrel.
Then found this beaut of a house martin expertly photographed by @jarrodhadfield.bsky.social later on.
#BirdingLothian
1 arctic skua, 29 manxies, 82 sandwich, 8 arctic, 6 common and 7 commic terns, 59 fulmar, 27 common scoter, 1 velvet scoter, barwit and 3 whimbrel.
Then found this beaut of a house martin expertly photographed by @jarrodhadfield.bsky.social later on.
#BirdingLothian
As far as I know, there are no confirmed breeding records of Black Redstart in Lothian, but this one at Torness doesn't look long out the nest. Thanks to @mattjsilk.bsky.social for putting me on to one of the strangest colour/pattern abnormalities I've seen - it's a House Martin! #BirdingLothian
August 1, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Torness this morning 06:07-09:21:
1 arctic skua, 29 manxies, 82 sandwich, 8 arctic, 6 common and 7 commic terns, 59 fulmar, 27 common scoter, 1 velvet scoter, barwit and 3 whimbrel.
Then found this beaut of a house martin expertly photographed by @jarrodhadfield.bsky.social later on.
#BirdingLothian
1 arctic skua, 29 manxies, 82 sandwich, 8 arctic, 6 common and 7 commic terns, 59 fulmar, 27 common scoter, 1 velvet scoter, barwit and 3 whimbrel.
Then found this beaut of a house martin expertly photographed by @jarrodhadfield.bsky.social later on.
#BirdingLothian
Reposted by Matthew Silk
🚨JOB alert🚨 Full-time Managing Editor role for @asab.org journal Animal Behaviour. Applicants must have animal #behaviour background; previous editorial experience would be ideal.
Apply by 31st July 2025.
#publishing #editor #job
More details: www.asab.org/opportunities
PLEASE share widely.
Apply by 31st July 2025.
#publishing #editor #job
More details: www.asab.org/opportunities
PLEASE share widely.
Opportunities — ASAB
www.asab.org
July 7, 2025 at 7:03 AM
🚨JOB alert🚨 Full-time Managing Editor role for @asab.org journal Animal Behaviour. Applicants must have animal #behaviour background; previous editorial experience would be ideal.
Apply by 31st July 2025.
#publishing #editor #job
More details: www.asab.org/opportunities
PLEASE share widely.
Apply by 31st July 2025.
#publishing #editor #job
More details: www.asab.org/opportunities
PLEASE share widely.
Reposted by Matthew Silk
been a long time coming, there's now a preprint along with Will Hoppitt describing our new R package for creating, fitting and interpreting bayesian NBDA models (STBayes). www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... Documentation is here michaelchimento.github.io/STbayes/inde...
June 12, 2025 at 8:23 AM
been a long time coming, there's now a preprint along with Will Hoppitt describing our new R package for creating, fitting and interpreting bayesian NBDA models (STBayes). www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... Documentation is here michaelchimento.github.io/STbayes/inde...
Reposted by Matthew Silk
Our paper on disentangling assortative mating and indirect genetic effects in empirical datasets has just been accepted in @jevbio.bsky.social ! It has been a long process (5 years in the making!) and I am very proud of the result 🥳
academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...
academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...
Disentangling non-random assortment, indirect effects, and joint plasticity as causes of phenotypic (dis)similarity between social partners
Abstract. Social partners frequently resemble each other. These correlations between the phenotypes of interacting individuals (e.g. social partners, group
academic.oup.com
May 25, 2025 at 9:29 AM
Our paper on disentangling assortative mating and indirect genetic effects in empirical datasets has just been accepted in @jevbio.bsky.social ! It has been a long process (5 years in the making!) and I am very proud of the result 🥳
academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...
academic.oup.com/jeb/advance-...
Reposted by Matthew Silk
New paper! I introduce mpmsim, an R package for simulating matrix population models (MPMs). Great for exploring life history, sampling error, and teaching population dynamics. Full docs + vignettes to get you started! doi.org/10.1111/2041...
mpmsim: An R package for simulating matrix population models
Matrix population models (MPMs) are widely used in ecology and evolution to explore population dynamics, including assessing management impacts and extinction risk. In comparative studies, MPMs ca...
doi.org
April 26, 2025 at 8:37 AM
New paper! I introduce mpmsim, an R package for simulating matrix population models (MPMs). Great for exploring life history, sampling error, and teaching population dynamics. Full docs + vignettes to get you started! doi.org/10.1111/2041...
Reposted by Matthew Silk
I am recruiting 1-2 postbacs for my parakeet sociality & cognition project! This position is for people finished with undergrad but who have not yet started grad school. Must be totally fascinated by parakeet social drama (there's a lot of it!)🪶🧪 Job ad here: ornithologyexchange.org/jobs/board/s...
February 27, 2025 at 12:26 PM
I am recruiting 1-2 postbacs for my parakeet sociality & cognition project! This position is for people finished with undergrad but who have not yet started grad school. Must be totally fascinated by parakeet social drama (there's a lot of it!)🪶🧪 Job ad here: ornithologyexchange.org/jobs/board/s...
Reposted by Matthew Silk
Our common garden experiment with urban and forest great tits is out early view in Evolution! doi.org/10.1093/evol... @denisreale.bsky.social @annecharmantier.bsky.social
February 25, 2025 at 11:11 AM
Our common garden experiment with urban and forest great tits is out early view in Evolution! doi.org/10.1093/evol... @denisreale.bsky.social @annecharmantier.bsky.social
Reposted by Matthew Silk
So exciting to see MacaqueNet out into the world! 🤩
Learn about our global community & database centralizing standardized affiliative & agonistic data from 61 populations across 14 macaque species: doi/10.1111/1365...
Explore >600 networks & request data: macaquenet.github.io/database/
Learn about our global community & database centralizing standardized affiliative & agonistic data from 61 populations across 14 macaque species: doi/10.1111/1365...
Explore >600 networks & request data: macaquenet.github.io/database/
MacaqueNet: Advancing comparative behavioural research through large‐scale collaboration
We present MacaqueNet, a global community of macaque researchers who developed the first publicly searchable, standardised database on affiliative and agonistic behaviour. This cross-species database...
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
February 12, 2025 at 10:09 AM
So exciting to see MacaqueNet out into the world! 🤩
Learn about our global community & database centralizing standardized affiliative & agonistic data from 61 populations across 14 macaque species: doi/10.1111/1365...
Explore >600 networks & request data: macaquenet.github.io/database/
Learn about our global community & database centralizing standardized affiliative & agonistic data from 61 populations across 14 macaque species: doi/10.1111/1365...
Explore >600 networks & request data: macaquenet.github.io/database/
Reposted by Matthew Silk
Fieldwork opportunity: We're looking to hire a field assistant for the www.phenoweb.org project starting 1 April. Please repost. #phenology #fieldwork #birdringing
February 12, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Fieldwork opportunity: We're looking to hire a field assistant for the www.phenoweb.org project starting 1 April. Please repost. #phenology #fieldwork #birdringing
Reposted by Matthew Silk
I'm looking to hire two MSc positions. Interested in social animals, agent-based modelling, and reinforcement learning (RL)? Take a look at these two projects!
Agent-based modelling of beluga social dynamics: tinyurl.com/4umsvkdx
Social network dynamics of RL agents: tinyurl.com/5jztxdd6
Agent-based modelling of beluga social dynamics: tinyurl.com/4umsvkdx
Social network dynamics of RL agents: tinyurl.com/5jztxdd6
February 11, 2025 at 9:02 PM
I'm looking to hire two MSc positions. Interested in social animals, agent-based modelling, and reinforcement learning (RL)? Take a look at these two projects!
Agent-based modelling of beluga social dynamics: tinyurl.com/4umsvkdx
Social network dynamics of RL agents: tinyurl.com/5jztxdd6
Agent-based modelling of beluga social dynamics: tinyurl.com/4umsvkdx
Social network dynamics of RL agents: tinyurl.com/5jztxdd6
Reposted by Matthew Silk
Please spread the word - I am looking for a postdoc to join my lab at @osubpp.bsky.social to study diversity and interactions of plants and pathogens in wild and working landscapes!
More information here: agsci-labs.oregonstate.edu/diseaseecolo...
More information here: agsci-labs.oregonstate.edu/diseaseecolo...
February 4, 2025 at 12:55 AM
Please spread the word - I am looking for a postdoc to join my lab at @osubpp.bsky.social to study diversity and interactions of plants and pathogens in wild and working landscapes!
More information here: agsci-labs.oregonstate.edu/diseaseecolo...
More information here: agsci-labs.oregonstate.edu/diseaseecolo...
Reposted by Matthew Silk
The Ecology & Behaviour annual conference is organised BY and FOR young researchers. In 2025 it comes back to Montpellier @ the Center for Functional & Evolutionary Ecology.
Highly recommended to PhD students & postdocs - come to share your science, make new friends & meet your future collaborators!
Highly recommended to PhD students & postdocs - come to share your science, make new friends & meet your future collaborators!
🚨SAVE THE DATE 🚨 The 17th Ecology & Behaviour is back at the CEFE!
Join us from August 11-15, 2025. Don't miss out!
Sign up here for updates: listes.services.cnrs.fr/wws/subscrib...
And, of course, follow us here! #ecobhvr2025
Join us from August 11-15, 2025. Don't miss out!
Sign up here for updates: listes.services.cnrs.fr/wws/subscrib...
And, of course, follow us here! #ecobhvr2025
December 18, 2024 at 3:51 PM
The Ecology & Behaviour annual conference is organised BY and FOR young researchers. In 2025 it comes back to Montpellier @ the Center for Functional & Evolutionary Ecology.
Highly recommended to PhD students & postdocs - come to share your science, make new friends & meet your future collaborators!
Highly recommended to PhD students & postdocs - come to share your science, make new friends & meet your future collaborators!
Reposted by Matthew Silk
The artwork by Franziska Brenninger is pretty, and we (coauthors Viktor Kovalov and I) think the equations are pretty too! Theme of the paper: when it's hard to succeed, do you try harder or do you give up in a "resistance is futile" way? Context: parasitism. academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...
Sex-specific immunocompetence: resistance and tolerance can both be futile but not under the same circumstances
Abstract. Immunocompetence evolution can involve a “resistance is futile” scenario if parasite encounter rates are so high that high investment in resistan
academic.oup.com
December 17, 2024 at 8:50 AM
The artwork by Franziska Brenninger is pretty, and we (coauthors Viktor Kovalov and I) think the equations are pretty too! Theme of the paper: when it's hard to succeed, do you try harder or do you give up in a "resistance is futile" way? Context: parasitism. academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...
Reposted by Matthew Silk
Interested in fitness consequences of the gut microbiome in the wild? Keen on being involved with an iconic long-term study system?
Check out a PhD opportunity working on Soay sheep microbiomes! Info below and feel free to contact with q's.
e4-dtp.ed.ac.uk/e5-dtp/super...
Check out a PhD opportunity working on Soay sheep microbiomes! Info below and feel free to contact with q's.
e4-dtp.ed.ac.uk/e5-dtp/super...
November 28, 2024 at 6:54 PM
Interested in fitness consequences of the gut microbiome in the wild? Keen on being involved with an iconic long-term study system?
Check out a PhD opportunity working on Soay sheep microbiomes! Info below and feel free to contact with q's.
e4-dtp.ed.ac.uk/e5-dtp/super...
Check out a PhD opportunity working on Soay sheep microbiomes! Info below and feel free to contact with q's.
e4-dtp.ed.ac.uk/e5-dtp/super...