Biography
Professor Isabel Smallegange, SFHEA is Professor of Biological Science and Head of the Department of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway, University of London. She is a population biologist whose research examines how developmental and behavioural processes shape life histories and population dynamics in changing environments.
Her career has spanned the University of Amsterdam, Imperial College London, the University of Oxford, Newcastle University and the Max Planck Institute. Before joining Royal Holloway in 2026, she held senior research and leadership roles at Newcastle University, including Academic Group Lead for Modelling, Evidence and Policy, Co-Lead of the Behaviour Newcastle University Centre of Research Excellence, and Director of Culture & Inclusion.
She has secured £3.93M in competitive fellowships and research grants, including a £948k NERC Pushing the Frontiers award (2026), and has served on international editorial boards, grant panels and scientific advisory bodies. She is Co-Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission Mite Specialist Group and has been recognised as a Top Scholar in Population Dynamics by ScholarGPS (2024).
Research summary
Professor Smallegange is a population biologist with expertise in developmentally informed demography, experimental evolution and ecological modelling. Her research integrates theory, empirical approaches and modelling to understand how developmental and behavioural processes shape eco-evolutionary population dynamics across marine and terrestrial systems.
She has pioneered frameworks linking energetics, agency and phenotypic plasticity, with applications spanning model invertebrates, fishes and marine megafauna. Her work addresses fundamental questions about life-history evolution and population resilience while also informing biodiversity conservation and responses to environmental change. She leads interdisciplinary collaborations spanning ecology, evolution, behavioural science, philosophy and conservation.
On this blog she posts on her research results and here she writes about balancing academic and home life.
