Research Fellow

About us

The Division of Biosciences at UCL is one of the world's foremost centres for research and teaching in the biological sciences. We have an outstanding international reputation and a community of over 500 staff and more than 300 PhD students engaged in cutting-edge research and collaboration.

Further information can be found on our website https://www.ucl.ac.uk/biosciences

This is an exciting opportunity to join the Cox Lab in the UCL Centre for Integrative Anatomy. The successful applicant will conduct research as part of the Leverhulme Trust-funded research project, “Adaptation and niche shifts in island giants”.

In this project, we are studying the morphology and function of a range of extinct island giant mammals from the Mediterranean over the last 12 million years. We will compare these insular giants with their modern mainland relatives using a variety of methods including statistical shape analysis and virtual biomechanical simulation.

About the role

The main purpose of this position is to study the biological phenomenon of insular gigantism, whereby small mammals on island evolve increased body size.

The objectives are to identify common patterns and trajectories of insular gigantism and address existing hypotheses for its evolution.

To accomplish this, you will collect a large CT image dataset of extant and fossil mammals and carry out morphometric and biomechanical analyses.

You will work closely with a second postdoctoral researcher to integrate your findings with dietary ecology inferred from stable isotopes analysis.

Interview Date(s) are scheduled for on or around 11 May 2026

This is an open ended contract with a funding end date of 30 June 2029 in the first instance.

Research Fellows - 'Appointment at Grade 7 is dependent upon having been awarded a PhD; if this is not the case, initial appointment will be at Grade 6B (salary £39,148 - £41,833 per annum) with payment at Grade 7 being backdated to the date of final submission of the PhD Thesis.'

About you

Your role will be to assemble a broad CT image dataset of mammalian skulls, including fossil insular giant species from the Mediterranean and their extant mainland relatives. You will then analyse this dataset with morphometric, biomechanical and adaptive landscape techniques.

You will be required to work collaboratively with other members of the research team, and with external partners both nationally and internationally.

You will be expected to disseminate research results via conference presentations and publications. You are also expected to contribution to dissemination more broadly to non-academic audiences via public engagement activities.

You must have a PhD or equivalent in Biology, Palaeontology or another relevant subject area and proven knowledge of mammalian anatomy and evolution. Experience in working with morphological image data is essential. Experience in geometric morphometrics and/or finite element analysis is desirable.