Rate My Professor Amanda Bretman

As an evolutionary ecologist, Bretman's research examines the evolution of sexual behaviour and plastic responses to social environments using insect model systems, primarily Drosophila fruit flies and Gryllus crickets. She employs a combination of behavioural assays and molecular approaches, including transcriptomics and RNAi, to explore reproductive behavioural plasticity, socio-sexual interactions, effects of social contact versus isolation, sexual selection, behavioural genetics, and thermal effects on reproduction, with implications for climate change impacts on fertility. Her highly cited publications include 'Seminal fluid protein allocation and male reproductive success' (Current Biology, 2009), 'The impact of climate change on fertility' (Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2019), 'Plastic responses of male Drosophila melanogaster to the level of sperm competition increase male reproductive fitness' (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 2009), 'Natural and sexual selection in a wild insect population' (Science, 2010), 'Quick-change artists: male plastic behavioural responses to rivals' (Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2011), 'Males use multiple, redundant cues to detect mating rivals' (Current Biology, 2011), and recent works such as 'Systematic approaches to assessing high-temperature limits to fertility in animals' (Journal of Experimental Biology, 2024) and 'Ageing effects of social environments in ‘non-social’ insects' (Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 2024). In October 2024, she presented her Inaugural Professorial Lecture on her scientific career.