Evolutionary Game Theory

Game theory is a set of approaches and methods originating from the study of human interactions, particularly in economics. However, we can also use game theory to study how social interactions in biology evolve. This is particularly useful to help us understand in what conditions is expected to (not) evolve. In Oxford, I am using evolutionary game theory to study the evolution of specialisation and divisions of labour in symbioses, in collaboration with Stuart West and Gregory Wyatt.

Evolutionary simulation of the rise of division of labour among two specialised types of symbionts. The beginning of the simulation is at the bottom, generations are indicated on the y-axis (unpublished).