Rate My Professor Erik Svensson

Erik Svensson is Professor of Population biology, micro- and macroevolution in the Department of Biology at Lund University, Sweden. He also serves as Professor in Biodiversity and Evolution since April 2024. Svensson earned his PhD in Animal Ecology from Lund University in 1997, with a dissertation entitled "Costs, benefits and constraints in the evolution of avian reproductive tactics: a study on the blue tit." As an evolutionary biologist, his work explores the interface between ecology and evolutionary biology. He investigates frequency-dependent processes that maintain diversity in genetic polymorphisms and species within ecological communities, as well as interactions between natural and sexual selection driving population divergence, reproductive isolation, speciation, and biodiversity. Central themes include phenotypic plasticity and its role in evolutionary rescue versus extinction under natural or sexual selection, alongside temperature effects on selection, local adaptation, biogeographic patterns, and phenotypic evolution over micro- and macroevolutionary timescales. His empirical research centers on insects, especially Odonata such as dragonflies and damselflies, birds including blue tits and ostriches, lizards, and freshwater isopods. Methodologically, he integrates classical population studies, field and laboratory experiments, population and quantitative genetics, selection analyses, genomics, phenomics, phylogenetic comparative methods, and artificial intelligence applications like machine learning and computer vision for phenotypic quantification.

Svensson's contributions have garnered over 14,500 citations on Google Scholar. Key publications encompass "The genomics and evolution of inter-sexual mimicry and female-limited polymorphisms in damselflies" (Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2023), "Ecology and sexual conflict drive the macroevolutionary dynamics of female-limited color polymorphisms in damselflies" (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2025), "Meta-analysis reveals that phenotypic plasticity and divergent selection promote reproductive isolation during incipient speciation" (Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2025), and "Infrared thermography is a useful tool in research on thermoregulation and evolution of heat tolerance" (Evolution Letters, 2025). He received the Swedish King’s 50th anniversary foundation award in 2003 and has been on the editorial board of the American Naturalist since 2021. Svensson is a member of the strategic research areas BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate since 2010 and eSSENCE: The e-Science Collaboration since 2023.