Rate My Professor Charlie Cornwallis

Charlie Cornwallis is a Professor in the Department of Biology at Lund University, holding professorships in the Molecular Ecology and Evolution Lab, Functional Ecology, and Aquatic Ecology. As a Wallenberg Academy Fellow appointed in 2013 with a prolongation grant in 2018, he leads the Cornwallis Group, which investigates the origin and breakdown of complex life through major evolutionary transitions. These include the evolution of multicellularity, sexual reproduction, group living in societies, and symbiotic relationships. Cornwallis employs experimental evolution and phylogenetic comparative approaches, studying cooperative breeding birds such as ostriches—which he has researched in South Africa for over a decade—and green algae like Chlamydomonas and Volvox found in Swedish lakes. His work explores why these transitions occur, how complex life is maintained, the transformations in organismal design that follow, and the conditions under which complex systems break down. This research contributes to understanding social evolution and has implications for biodiversity conservation, aligning with UN Sustainable Development Goals 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and 13 (Climate Action).

Cornwallis earned a PhD in Zoology and has published influential papers in top journals, advancing evolutionary ecology. Among his most cited works are "Inclusive fitness theory and eusociality" (Nature, 2011), "Towards an evolutionary ecology of sexual traits" (Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2010), "Promiscuity and the evolutionary transition to complex societies" (Nature, 2010), "Sophisticated sperm allocation in male fowl" (Nature, 2003), "The evolution of host-symbiont dependence" (Nature Communications, 2017), and "Group formation, relatedness, and the evolution of multicellularity" (Current Biology, 2013). Recent publications include "Global hotspots of mycorrhizal fungal richness are poorly protected" (Nature, 2025), "Cryptic infection of a giant virus in a unicellular green alga" (Science, 2025), and "Adaptation to fluctuating temperatures across life stages in endotherms" (Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2024). As principal investigator, he supervises postdoctoral researchers, doctoral students such as Qinyang Li, and collaborates on projects examining bacteria in insects, viral infections in algae, and heat tolerance in birds. His contributions elucidate mechanisms of cooperation and complexity in nature.