Dr Eleanor Bladon 

Dr Eleanor Bladon is an evolutionary biologist and behavioural ecologist, currently working as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Zoology. Her research investigates the evolutionary causes and consequences of adaptive social behaviours, with a focus on parental care. Using a combination of behavioural and molecular assays in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides she investigates how adaptive social behaviour influences evolution: by providing a mechanism for non-genetic inheritance, by constructing the environment in which further social interactions play out, and by influencing trait loss and trait evolvability. Her research also looks at how an understanding of evolutionary and behavioural theory can inform practical conservation work.

Prior to her current position she was a researcher in the Conservation Evidence group within the Cambridge Conservation Initiative, compiling evidence for the effectiveness of conservation actions for butterflies and moths, and corals. Her PhD and MPhil were also in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge. Her undergraduate degree was in Classics, also from the University of Cambridge. After her BA she worked as a tax advisor specialising in global mobility of employees, before retraining in Ecology at the University of East Anglia.

She has extensive media experience, including working as a freelance journalist, presenter and newsreader for BBC Radio Cambridgeshire and as an online presenter for the Festival of Nature. She is passionate about science communication and outreach. She has won national awards for her nature documentary making and blog writing, and she regularly volunteers at the Museum of Zoology at the University of Cambridge, presenting public events, speaking on panels, and leading science sessions for school groups.