Chris Anderson
PhD Student
I am a computational ecologist that tries to answer questions related to biological community assembly and persistence using a blend of computational simulations and empirical field work. Diverse and high functioning communities of organisms are essential to life on earth and to the maintenance of important ecosystem services such as pollination. Despite the importance of species interactions within a community, however, it is often not well understood how communities are assembled in the first place or why some species are generalists while others are specialists in their interaction preferences. My dissertation explores the role that community structure and population dynamics play in the assembly and persistence of mutualistic networks.
Education
Harvard University (2008-2012)
Cambridge, MA
AB in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
Funding
Top Scholar Fellowship (2021)
Computational Science Graduate Fellowship (2022-2026)
Publications
Anderson CR, Curtsdotter ARK, Staniczenko PA, Valdovinos FS, Brosi BJ. 2024. The Interplay of Binary and Quantitative Structure on the Stability of Mutualistic Networks, Integrative and Comparative Biology 64(3): 827–840.