Loeske Kruuk

Kruuk started her academic career by studying mathematics at the University of Oxford.[1][2] During her undergraduate studies she became interested in biology, so switched her focus to population genetics.[3] Kruuk was a graduate student at the University of Edinburgh, where she investigated fire-bellied toads with Nick Barton.[4] She was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge, where she studied evolutionary processes in red deer.[4] During this position, she started to appreciate the power of long-term wild animal population studies in understanding evolution and genetics.[1]

In 2000, Kruuk was named a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, where she was eventually promoted to Professor of Evolutionary Ecology.[1] She moved to Australia in 2012, where she was awarded an Australian Research Council fellowship. Her research laboratory investigated the influence of climate change on animal populations. She mainly considered wild vertebrate species, including Australian geckos, Soay sheep, Mosquitofish and Australasian wrens.[5][6] By studying the Australasian wrens of the Australian National Botanic Gardens, Kruuk showed that they changed breeding habits depending on the climate.[7] She was promoted to an Australian Research Council Laureate in 2020.[1][8]

In 2021, Kruuk was selected as one of the Royal Society Research Professors, which allowed her to return to the University of Edinburgh.[9] There she investigates the impacts of environmental change on natural populations.[9]

Kruuk has three children, a daughter and twin boys.[2][3][10]

• 2006 Philip Leverhulme Prize[11]
• 2008 Zoological Society of London Scientific Medal[12]
• 2012 Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh[13][14]
• 2012 Australian Research Council Future Fellowship[15]
• 2014 Elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization[16]
• 2015 The Genetics Society Mary Lyon Medal[17][2]
• 2018 Centre for Biodiversity Analysis Ignition Grant[18]
• 2018 European Society for Evolutionary Biology President’s Award[4]
• 2020 Elected Australian Research Council Australian Laureate Fellowship[19]
• 2021 Royal Society Research Professor[9]

• Loeske E. B. Kruuk (1997), Barriers to gene flow : a Bombina (fire-bellied toad) hybrid zone and multilocus cline theory, hdl:1842/11015, OCLC 606074620, Wikidata Q104879469
• Marshall TC; Slate J; Kruuk LE; Pemberton JM (1 May 1998). "Statistical confidence for likelihood-based paternity inference in natural populations". Molecular Ecology. 7 (5): 639–655. doi:10.1046/J.1365-294X.1998.00374.X. ISSN 0962-1083. PMID 9633105. Wikidata Q34472533.
• Anne Charmantier; Robin H McCleery; Lionel R Cole; Chris Perrins; Loeske E B Kruuk; Ben C Sheldon (1 May 2008). "Adaptive phenotypic plasticity in response to climate change in a wild bird population". Science. 320 (5877): 800–803. doi:10.1126/SCIENCE.1157174. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 18467590. Wikidata Q31155027.
• Loeske E B Kruuk (1 June 2004). "Estimating genetic parameters in natural populations using the "animal model"". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. 359 (1446): 873–890. doi:10.1098/RSTB.2003.1437. ISSN 0962-8436. PMC 1693385. PMID 15306404. Wikidata Q35213997.