Rate My Professor Shaun Killen

Professor Shaun Killen serves as Professor of Ecophysiology (Ecology & Environmental Change) in the Institute of Biodiversity, Animal Health & Comparative Medicine within the University of Glasgow's School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine, part of the College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences. He obtained his B.Sc. (Honours) in Biology from Queen's University and his Ph.D. from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 2007, where he studied interactions between metabolic traits and behaviour during early development in larval marine fishes. From 2007 to 2009, he was an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow at Université Montpellier 2 in France. Since joining the University of Glasgow in September 2009 as a Research Associate in the College of Medical, Veterinary & Life Sciences, he has advanced to his current professorial role.

Killen's research investigates how physiological traits interact with behaviour to influence life-history strategies and trade-offs in foraging and predator-avoidance, primarily in freshwater and marine fishes. Key areas include the effects of environmental stressors on animal behaviour, scaling of metabolic rate with body size and its ecological implications, physiological consequences of catch-and-release angling, and mechanisms of fisheries-induced evolution. His recent work addresses social context in comparative physiology, impacts of climate-related stressors and anthropogenic pollutants on fish social group cohesion and sociability, and metabolic phenotypes in relation to cognitive performance and sleep-wake cycles. With over 230 publications and more than 10,000 citations on Google Scholar, influential papers include 'Environmental stressors alter relationships between physiology and behaviour' (2013, Trends in Ecology & Evolution), 'Vulnerability of individual fish to capture by trawling is influenced by capacity for anaerobic metabolism' (2015, Proceedings of the Royal Society B), and 'Further integrating social context into comparative and environmental physiology' (2026, Journal of Experimental Biology). He has secured funding from the Natural Environment Research Council, European Research Council, Royal Society, and others.