All posts

Every post ever published, across every page — including posts marked archive that no longer appear in their page’s own feed. Use the search box and category cloud below to filter by topic, controlled tag, or archive status.

Francesco Polazzo

team
postdoc
Francesco Polazzo is a postdoc in the group.
Sep 20, 2026

Martina Jelić

team
phd-student
Martina Jelić is a PhD student in the group.
Sep 19, 2026

Til Hämmig

team
phd-student
Til Hämmig is a PhD student in the group.
Sep 18, 2026

From streams to forests: ecology in the natural world

research
natural ecosystems
field ecology
functional diversity
ecological stability
Much of our research uses mathematical models and controlled microbial experiments to isolate ecological mechanisms, but an equally important question is whether those ideas…
Sep 17, 2026
Owen Petchey

Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Ecological Stability

join-us
postdoc
ecological stability
We’re inviting applications for a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship of up to three years, 100%, to develop and lead an independent research programme on ecological stability.
Sep 17, 2026
Predictive Ecology Group

PhD position: bringing response diversity into biodiversity policy (ReDiLEEP)

join-us
phd
response diversity
policy
We’re recruiting a Doctoral Candidate to ReDiLEEP, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Network on response diversity, for a project sitting right at the…
Sep 17, 2026
Predictive Ecology Group

Jeannine Roy

team
lab-manager
technician
Jeannine Roy is the group’s lab manager and technician, keeping the lab and fieldwork running.
Sep 17, 2026

Sara Galizia

team
bsc-student
Sara Galizia is completing a Bachelor’s thesis with the group.
Sep 16, 2026

Jenni Lucien

team
bsc-student
Jenni Lucien is completing a Bachelor’s thesis with the group.
Sep 15, 2026

Lina Hasenfratz

team
bsc-student
alumni
archive
Lina Hasenfratz completed her Bachelor’s thesis with the group, 2025–2026.
Sep 14, 2026

Predicting ecosystem functioning: functional diversity

research
ecosystem functioning
functional diversity
Biodiversity is often described by counting species. But species richness tells us relatively little about what those species do. Two communities might each contain 20…
Sep 13, 2026
Owen Petchey

Paula Stöckli

team
bsc-student
alumni
archive
Paula Stöckli completed her Bachelor’s thesis with the group, 2025–2026.
Sep 13, 2026

Predicting ecological stability: response diversity

research
ecological stability
response diversity
food webs
Why are some ecological communities relatively stable when their environment changes, while others fluctuate dramatically? Species richness provides only part of the answer.…
Sep 12, 2026
Owen Petchey

Noé Bugaud

team
msc-student
archive
(Draft — not yet public. Remove the archive tag from the front matter once Noé actually starts.)
Sep 12, 2026

Experimental microbial ecology

research
microbial ecology
protist microcosms
How can we test ecological ideas that concern whole communities, multiple generations and changing environments? Field observations provide ecological realism, but many…
Sep 11, 2026
Owen Petchey

Isabel Schöchli

team
administration
Isabel Schöchli handles HR administration for the group.
Sep 11, 2026

Video microscopy and computer vision

research
methods
video tracking
R
Microbial communities offer ecologists an unusual opportunity. Entire communities can be maintained in small laboratory microcosms, replicated extensively, and followed…
Sep 10, 2026
Owen Petchey

Maja Weilenmann

team
administration
Maja Weilenmann handles group administration.
Sep 10, 2026

Mathematical modelling

research
mathematical modelling
Ecological systems contain many interacting processes, making it difficult to determine which mechanisms are responsible for an observed pattern. Mathematical models offer a…
Sep 9, 2026
Owen Petchey

Maura Ganz

team
postdoc
Maura Ganz is a postdoctoral researcher in the group.
Sep 9, 2026

Lia Moana De Turris

team
technician
apprentice
Lia Moana De Turris is a technician apprentice with the group.
Sep 8, 2026

Yanan Wei

team
phd-student
visiting
Yanan Wei joined the group on 1 September 2026 as a visiting PhD student from the School of Life Sciences, Nanjing University, for a two-year stay funded by the China…
Sep 7, 2026

Keynote at the joint GfÖ/Oikos meeting, Odense

outreach
keynote
Owen gave a keynote talk at the joint annual meeting of the German Ecological Society (GfÖ) and the Nordic Society Oikos, held in Odense, Denmark, on 7 September 2026.
Sep 7, 2026
Owen Petchey

Ecological forecasting

research
response diversity
Ecology has traditionally been very good at explaining why ecological systems behaved as they did. A more demanding question is whether ecological understanding allows us to…
Sep 5, 2026
Owen Petchey

Owen Petchey

team
group-leader
Owen leads the group’s work on ecological forecasting — understanding food webs and ecological communities well enough to predict how they change.
Sep 5, 2026

The Response Diversity Network

organising
response diversity
community
The Response Diversity Network is a community of researchers working on a deceptively simple question: what is response diversity, why does it matter, and what should the…
Sep 5, 2026
Owen Petchey

ReDiLEEP: a doctoral network on response diversity

organising
response diversity
funding
ReDiLEEP — “using Response Diversity knowledge to Leverage Efficient Ecosystem Preservation and restoration” — is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Doctoral Network…
Sep 5, 2026
Owen Petchey

Leading a breakout session at the Second UZH Biodiversity Roundtable

outreach
leadership
On 17 April 2026, Owen co-led a breakout session on biodiversity leadership at the Second UZH Biodiversity Roundtable — an invitation-only event bringing together around 55…
Apr 17, 2026
Owen Petchey

Panel moderation: Future of Sustainability

outreach
panel discussion
On 25 February 2026, Owen moderated the closing panel at “UZH Sustainable”, a university-wide event in the UZH Aula showcasing how the University of Zurich is putting…
Feb 25, 2026
Owen Petchey

SYNT workshop at the UZH Science Lab

outreach
public engagement
judging
In January, Owen hosted a SYNT workshop at the UZH Science Lab — the university’s hands-on venue for connecting science with schools, teachers, and the public through…
Jan 15, 2026
Owen Petchey

Public critique or private conversation? How to know what’s best for you.

misc
thoughts
research culture
A few months ago, I and some colleagues at the University of Zurich gathered to discuss a recent paper in a leading ecology journal. During the discussion, I realised — or…
Jul 16, 2025
Owen Petchey

AI tips and tricks

misc
tips
AI
At a recent group retreat we shared AI tips and tricks:
Jun 27, 2025
Owen Petchey

Panelist: Building Resilience Through One Health

outreach
panel discussion
On 20 June 2024, Owen joined the panel for Building Resilience through One Health, a public talk hosted by Una Europa — an alliance of eleven European research universities…
Jun 20, 2024
Owen Petchey

Visiting Fellow at OIST’s Theoretical Sciences Visiting Program

organising
visiting fellowship
archive
From 1 to 30 March 2024, Owen was a Visiting Fellow in the Theoretical Sciences Visiting Program (TSVP) at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), Japan.
Mar 1, 2024
Owen Petchey

For your interest

misc
thoughts
A few things I’ve written that may be of interest. I wrote them a while ago and could now quibble with some of the points and arguments, but I think the main themes still…
Oct 17, 2019
Owen Petchey

Demonstrating added-value of integrative research

organising
bibliometrics
R
Do you think integrative research has added value — that it’s more than the sum of its parts? How can we show how integrative a body of research is, and investigate whether…
Mar 14, 2019
Owen Petchey

A tool for valuing contributions in teams

organising
team culture
Working in teams can be some of the most stimulating, exciting, and important experiences we have. At other times things can get a bit sticky — for example when it comes to…
Mar 13, 2019
Owen Petchey

An academic in business school, and being a better dad

misc
thoughts
leadership
I’d never had formal management or leadership training, never been schooled in negotiation or influencing, and never run a business. I have now — and consequently have more…
Mar 11, 2019
Owen Petchey

Students are not our customers, they are our products

misc
thoughts
higher education
Universities are made up of various groups of people, including managers and academics. Managers govern and lead; academics teach and do research. Managers tend to view the…
Mar 11, 2019
Owen Petchey

Calculating FD

research
functional diversity
Code and instructions for calculating FD, the measure of functional diversity that Owen and Kevin Gaston created. See Predicting ecosystem functioning: functional diversity f…
Mar 4, 2019
Owen Petchey

Food web tools

research
food webs
R
Code to model and analyse random, cascade, and niche food web models. These sit alongside the group’s broader work on predicting the architecture of food webs with…
Mar 4, 2019
Owen Petchey

Making an (even more) effective enquiry

join-us
advice
Whether you’re asking about available positions (and perhaps funding), or you’ve found a funding scheme you’d like to apply for (to be held in a group member’s lab), there…
Mar 3, 2019
Owen Petchey

Getting Started with R: what readers and course participants say

education
R
teaching
archive
From the review of the book in Trends in Ecology and Evolution, by Graeme D. Ruxton, University of St Andrews:
Sep 9, 2018
Owen Petchey

About fairness in the workplace

misc
thoughts
team culture
Following a discussion with a colleague about fairness in the workplace, I gave myself two hours to research it. A good starting point turned out to be Fujishiro, K. (2005), …
Oct 9, 2015
Owen Petchey

IEU photo exhibition

organising
community
A nice example of a low-effort, high-fun way to build community within a department: a photo exhibition.
Nov 13, 2014
Owen Petchey

When should I start giving?

misc
thoughts
careers
Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success, by Adam Grant — what a great read. It argues that givers are often the most successful people around, and explains why.…
Jul 28, 2014
Owen Petchey
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