Alec Downie
Postdoc
Department of Primate Behavior and Evolution
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig
e-mail:
alec_downie@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de
Research Interests
My interests are at the intersection of evolutionary ecology, immunology, and disease ecology: how and why do wild organisms vary in the immune defenses that they deploy? I am particularly interested in the influence of life history and social context on immune defense, assessing how immune phenotypes function as part of overall organismal strategy. To this end I apply classic approaches from ecology and evolution to study immune variation, and I am particularly enthusiastic about comparative approaches. My research involves a mixture of mathematical theory, lab, and field work, and has spanned multiple study systems.
Education
| 2018–2023 | PhD, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, USA |
| 2016–2017 | MPhil, Biological Anthropological Science, Clare College, University of Cambridge, UK |
| 2012–2016 | BS, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, USA |
Other research experience
| 2017–2018 | Postbaccalaureate research fellow, Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases, National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, USA |