Interdisciplinary seminar day with Martin Daly and Gretchen Perry

We were delighted to host Professors Martin Daly (McMaster University) and Gretchen Perry (Lakehead University) for a day of excellent talks (11.07.2018) in Turku at Panimoravintola Koulu, from speakers in a range of disciplines. The focus was particularly on alloparenting in humans, but also included talks on elephant alloparenting, evolutionary psychology, and the life-histories of Karelian evacuees and servicewomen. We heard about a lot of interesting work, and got one or two ideas for investigating contexts of grandmothering in our historic Finnish data from work that has been done on contemporary grandmothering - this underlines the importance of interdisciplinary meetings!

In attendance (in order of talks):
Virpi Lummaa (UTU, biology)
Martin Daly (McMaster University)
Gretchen Perry (Lakehead University)
Mirkka Danielsbacka (UTU, social sciences)
Antti Tanskanen (UTU, social sciences)
Simon Chapman (UTU, biology)
Hannu Lehti (UTU, social sciences)
Mirkka Lahdenperä (UTU, biology)
Emily Lynch (UTU, biology)
John Loehr (University of Helsinki)
Markus Rantala (UTU, biology & Turku Brain and Mind Centre)
Jenni Pettay (UTU, biology)
Robert Lynch (UTU, biology)

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Other News

New Paper: Sex differences in adult mortality rate mediated by early-life conditions

Our latest paper shows that early-life environment is associated with sex differences in adult mortality and expected lifespan. Out now in Ecology Letters:
http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/ele.12888

New Paper: What have humans done for evolutionary biology?

Our review of the contribution of human studies to evolutionary biology is out now in Proceedings of the Royal Society B:
http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/284/1866/20171164

The first Phoenix Award was given to Virpi Lummaa

Virpi was given the inaugural Phoenix Award from the Turku Finnish University Society on Friday in recognition of and encouragement for her consistently creative and internationally high-quality re

Visiting researcher: Silke van Daalen

We had the pleasure of hosting Silke van Daalen from the University of Amsterdam for three weeks this September. Silke is a PhD student working with Hal Caswell on identifying individual stochasticity in life-history traits of long-lived populations with a mathematical modelling approach, and came to learn about our dataset and how she might be able to use it in her work. We wish her the best of luck with the rest of her PhD studies, and hope to see her again soon!

Seili Project Meeting 20.09-22.09.17

Another year, another project meeting! This time we stayed on the beautiful island of Seili, again with the lovely people from the Myanmar Timber Elephant Project, for a few days of talks, drinks, and sauna. Needless to say, there is plenty of interesting and exciting work underway - keep your eyes peeled for the results, coming soon (hopefully) to peer-reviewed journals near you!

Learning From Our Past: Karelia-project's kick-off meeting in Turku 19.4.2017

John Loehr with his workgroup received EUR 225.000 grant from Kone Foundation in 2016 for their project Learning from the past: the effect of forced migration from Karelia on family life.
Karelia-project had their kick-off meeting at the University of Turku 19.4.2017. Intense discussions, good spirit and a lot of inspiration among the team!

Virpi Lummaan mummohypoteesi paljastaa luonnonvalinnan oveluuden

Menikö luonnonvalinnalla jotain pieleen: Miksi nainen elää menopaussin jälkeen lähes saman mokoman vaikkei voi saada jälkeläisiä?

Post-doctoral research position in human evolutionary ecology

Our multidisciplinary research team is looking for a post-doctoral researcher for a three-year project investigating life history, social integration and the influence of kin in forced migrants in a 20th century Finnish population.

The project is an exciting opportunity to investigate the consequences of forced migration of over 400000 people during World War II from an evolutionary ecology and sociology viewpoint. These migrants encountered much the same traumas and faced similar prejudices and resentment that current migrants face today, making the study of this population particularly appropriate to gain insight into the present and future of current migrants.

Learning From Our Past: the effect of forced migration from Karelia on family life

John Loehr with his workgroup received EUR 225.000 grant from Kone Foundation in 2016 for their project Learning from the past: the effect of forced migration from Karelia on family life.

The plight of migrants has come to the forefront recently as masses of people have migrated to Europe seeking asylum from predicaments faced at home. Many people in Finland seem to have forgotten that over 400,000 Finnish people had to abandon their homes in Karelia as a result of World War II. In this cross-disciplinary project, directed by John Loehr, an ecological scientist, biologists, sociologists, historians and demographic researchers study how enforced migration has affected family relations, having children, and integration into the community.

Kimmo Pokkinen's birthday party at the university

Kimmo Pokkinen is a man behind the Finnish church book data which he has been collecting for years. He had a big day recently and there was a fair reason to serve some birthday cake for him at the university. Congratulations!