Gardner Research Group home  joao alpedrinha I am interested in social evolution and its application to organisms in defined ecological contexts. I did my undergraduate Biology degree at the University of Lisbon, and worker for my honours project at ISPA with Rui Oliveira and David Goncalves as supervisors. I developed a project on the behavioral endocrinology of Salaria pavo, a fish with alternative reproductive tactics. After my undergraduate degree I was awarded a Portuguese short term IEFP grant and joined Franciso Dionisio’s lab at IGC, working on experimental evolution and social behaviour in bacteria.  My experience in, working in bacteria social biology and fish behavioural ecology had a profound effect shaping my interests in biology. The outcome is a keen interest in evolutionary biology, particularly social evolution theory. I am now a D.Phil student at the University of Oxford and at the Gulbenkian Institute of Science, under the supervision of Stuart West and Andy Gardner, on social evolution theory and sex allocation. My projects range from sex allocation in malaria parasites, the evolution of eusociality and the evolution of soldier castes in polyembryonic wasps. Publications Gardner A, Arce A & Alpedrinha J (2009) Budding dispersal and the sex ratio. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 22, 1036-1045. Gonçalves D, Teles M, Alpedrinha J & Oliveira, RF (2008) Brain and gonadal aromatase activity and steroid hormone levels in female and polymorphic males of the peacock blenny Salaria pavo. Hormones and Behaviour 54, 717-725.  Gonçalves D, Alpedrinha J, Teles M & Oliveira, RF (2007) Endocrine control of sexual behavior in sneaker males of the peacock blenny Salaria pavo: effects of castration, aromatose inhibition, testosterone and estradiol. Hormones and Behaviour 51, 534-541.