Rate My Professor Hamish Spencer

Spencer has produced over 160 peer-reviewed publications, including the monograph Beyond Equilibria: Historical Approaches to Ecology and Evolution (Oxford University Press, 2025). Among his highly cited works are "Developmental plasticity and human health" (Nature, 2004), "Predictive adaptive responses and human evolution" (Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 2005), "Metapopulation structure favors plasticity over local adaptation" (The American Naturalist, 2002), "A census of mammalian imprinting" (Trends in Genetics, 2005), and "Environmental influences during development and their later consequences for health and disease" (Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 2005). Recent contributions include "Biology should not dispense with sexes" (Current Biology, 2025), "Towards a more nuanced understanding of long-distance rafting" (Global Ecology & Biogeography, 2025), and "Polymorphism and the Red Queen" (Genes, Genomes, Genetics, 2024). His work has significantly influenced evolutionary biology, particularly in understanding biodiversity processes in Aotearoa New Zealand across algae, flatworms, molluscs, birds, and bats. Spencer received the James Cook Research Fellowship in 2022 for his project on the 'Paradox of Variation', was elected Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi in 2009, awarded the Callaghan Medal in 2016, and became a Fellow of the International Science Council in 2023. He is noted for his commitment to science communication and bringing science to the wider community.