Michael Bonsall

Professor of Mathematical Biology, University of Oxford

Mike Bonsall is head of Oxford’s Mathematical Ecology Research Group (MERG), and supervises two of FHI’s DPhil students who are also in MERG: Andrew Snyder-Beattie and Greg Lewis.  The focus of this work within MERG is on studying existential risk from biotechnology using the tools of ecology and evolution.

Mike is a population biologist and has research interests across a range of disciplines including biodiversity, ecology, evolution, health and economics.

His research combines quantitative and empirical approaches to addressing cross-disciplinary questions such as the evolution of parental care and cannibalism, evaluating the cost-effectiveness of different strategies for disease control, approaches for combining ecological and evolutionary information for assessing biodiversity, the dynamics of stem cell systems and the role of uncertainty in dynamics of metapopulations. He is a member of the DEFRA Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment and has worked with WHO, FNIH and the EU in developing guidance frameworks for the use of novel biotechnological approaches for pest and vector control.