Biosketch

Nick Barton has been a Professor at the Institute of Science and Technology, Austria since 2008; he was the first scientist to join this new institute. He took a B.A. in Natural Sciences in Cambridge in 1976, specialising in genetics, and earnt a Ph.D. from the University of East Anglia in 1979. After a short research fellowship and then lectureship back in Cambridge, he moved to University College London in 1982, and then to the University of Edinburgh in 1990. He was elected to the Royal Society of London in 1994, and was President of the Society for the Study of Evolution in 2001. He has collaborated widely, but in particular with Michael Turelli on quantitative genetic theory and dengue biocontrol, and with Alison Etheridge on stochastic population genetics.

Research Interests

Nick Barton’s research has centred on the study of hybrid zones - narrow regions in which distinct populations meet and produce hybrids. He has worked on diverse systems, including grasshoppers (Podisma), butterflies (Heliconius), toads (Bombina), bacteria (Wolbachia) and flowering plants (Antirrhinum). Hybrid zones are natural laboratories for studying the interaction between selection and gene flow, involving selection on large numbers of genes, in spatially continuous populations. Their study led on to theoretical work on a wide variety of topics: speciation, population structure, evolution of recombination, selection on quantitative traits, and evolutionary computation. Currently, his research focusses on a long-term study of a flower colour hybrid zone in snapdragons (Antirrhinum majus). This serves as a test-bed for developing ways to infer selection and demography from genomic data.

Membership Type

International Member

Election Year

2024

Primary Section

Section 27: Evolutionary Biology

Secondary Section

Section 32: Applied Mathematical Sciences