Portrait of John McNamara

Three-quarter length portrait of John McNamara, leaning against a wall, behind a busy desk and row of cacti, in his home office.

Professor John McNamara, mathematician, behavioural ecologist and evolutionary biologist, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2012. His research develops new methods and models for the study of animal behaviour, and amongst his areas of study are: the trade off between food and predation, the overwinter survival strategies of birds, annual routines, trans-generational effects, adaptations to fluctuating environments, the ecological rationality of behavioural strategies and evolutionary game theory.

McNamara's work has been internationally recognised. He is the joint winner of the 2008 Hamilton Award of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology, the joint winner of the 2013 Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour Medal, and the winner of the 2014 Weldon Memorial Prize, the 2018 Frink Medal of the Zoological Society of London and the 2018 Sewall Wright Award of the American Society of Naturalists.