Jack Da Silva

Dr Jack Da Silva

Senior Lecturer

School of Biological Sciences

Faculty of Sciences, Engineering and Technology

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.


My research and teaching are focused on evolutionary genetics. Current topics of interest are:

Evolution of Sex (recombination)
Evolution of Sexes (anisogamy)
Evolution of Aging (senescence)
Evolution of Altruism (eusociality)

I approach these problems with a combination of phylogenetic comparative analyses and computer simulation. Please see my publications for recent examples.

Current projects include:

1. Density Dependent Regulation of Animal Populations. An animal-wide survey of the forms of density dependence. The results will determine the appropriate measures of fitness to use in models of the evolution of ageing.

2. Sex Differences in Lifespan. Tests of the "unguarded X" and the "sexual selection" hypotheses to distinguish between mutation accumulation and life history optimisation theories of the evolution of ageing.

3. Plastic Senescence of Castes in Eusocial Hymenoptera. A survey of caste differences in the rate of senescence and a test of the relationship between extrinsic mortality and the rate of senescence.

  • Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)

    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2009 - 2013 Co-Supervisor Chloroplast DNAs Diversify Nuclear and Mitochondrial Genomes in Plants Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Dong Wang
    2008 - 2013 Co-Supervisor Comprehensive Identification and Annotation of Non-Protein-Coding Transcriptomes from Vertebrates Indicates Most ncRNAs are Regulatory Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Zhipeng Qu
  • Position: Senior Lecturer
  • Phone: 83137009
  • Email: jack.dasilva@adelaide.edu.au
  • Fax: 83134362
  • Campus: North Terrace
  • Building: Molecular Life Sciences, floor 2
  • Org Unit: Molecular and Biomedical Science

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External Profiles