Loeske Kruuk facts for kids

Loeske E. B. Kruuk is a famous scientist who studies how living things change over time. This field is called evolutionary ecology. She works as a special professor at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. In 2023, she became a Fellow of the Royal Society, which is a very important honour for scientists. She also won a big award in 2018 from the European Society for Evolutionary Biology.

Loeske's Early Life and Learning

Loeske Kruuk began her university studies in 1988 at Somerville College, Oxford, where she first studied mathematics. Later, she decided to switch to biology. She earned a Master's degree in Ecology from the University of Aberdeen.

Then, she went to the University of Edinburgh for her PhD. Here, she studied how different groups of amphibians mix together, working with a scientist named Nick Barton. After her PhD, she continued her research at the University of Cambridge and again at the University of Edinburgh. During this time, she studied how red deer populations change over many years. This work helped her see how important it is to study wild animals for a long time to understand how they evolve.

Her Amazing Research Career

In 2000, Loeske Kruuk became a special research fellow at the University of Edinburgh. By 2009, she was made a Professor of Evolutionary Ecology. In 2012, she moved to the Australian National University. There, she received a special fellowship to continue her work.

Her research team looked at how changes in the climate affect groups of animals. She mostly studies wild animals with backbones, like birds and mammals. Her work helps us understand how natural selection works and how animals evolve in nature. She also studies how the environment changes them, how genetics play a role, and how being closely related can affect animal health. In 2020, she won another big award called the Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship.

In 2021, Loeske was chosen as one of the Royal Society Research Professors. This allowed her to move back to the University of Edinburgh. There, she continues to study how environmental changes affect animal populations in the wild. She also works as an editor for a science magazine called Proceedings of the Royal Society Series B Biological Sciences.

Awards and Special Honours

Loeske Kruuk has received many important awards and honours for her scientific work:

• 2023: Became a Fellow of the Royal Society
• 2021: Named a Royal Society Research Professor
• 2020: Won the Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship
• 2018: Received the President's Award from the European Society for Evolutionary Biology
• 2015: Awarded The The Genetics Society Mary Lyon Medal
• 2014: Became an elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization
• 2012: Received the Australian Research Council Future Fellowship
• 2012: Became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
• 2008: Won the Zoological Society of London Scientific Medal
• 2006: Awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize

Selected publications