Dr. Alexandre Courtiol

Scientist
Department of Evolutionary Genetics
Short curriculum vitae
I am an Evolutionary Biologist trained in Montpellier, France. After the completion of my Phd in 2009, I did a postdoc in Sheffield, UK as a fellow of the Khone foundation in the lab of Virpi Lummaa (2010-2011). I was then a Marie Currie fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, an institute for advanced study in Germany (2011-2012). Since 2012 I work at the Leibniz-IZW as a senior researcher.
The goal of my research is to understand the evolution of life history traits, with a particular focus on mammals. Specifically, I am interested in understanding (1) variation in life history traits between individuals, (2) how demography and selection interplay, and (3) the relationship between mate choice and sexual selection. My research heavily relies on advanced statistical methods and programming technics. I am thus also developing methods, which aim to study inter-individual differences quantitatively.
In this context, I am developing and contributing to the development of R packages to produce open source tools helping my colleagues to do their research.
Within the Leibniz-IZW, I am leading a small team called 'modeling life history evolution'. I am also providing supports for statistical analysis or other projects in R. I also teach statistics and R programming for universities (mostly the Freie University, but also Potsdam), summer schools and workshops, as well as for private companies.- Life history
- Mate choice
- Demography
- Evolution
- Behaviour
- R
Courtiol A, Etienne L, Feron R, Godelle B, Rousset F (2016): The evolution of mutual mate choice under direct benefits. The American Naturalist 188 (5) (co-first author).