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8 November 2026

Owen R. Jones

Associate Professor, Department of Biology, University of Southern Denmark
Head, Population Biology Group (PopBio)
Affiliated researcher, SDU Climate Cluster

Fellow of the British Ecological Society, 2026 · 🏆 BES Elton Prize, 2016 · 🏆 PNAS Cozzarelli Prize, 2016

I am an Associate Professor at the University of Southern Denmark, where I lead the Population Biology Group (PopBio). My research focuses on the diversity of life histories, demographic processes, and phenological patterns across the tree of life, addressing why some species live long lives while others have short ones, and how organisms time life-cycle events in response to environmental change. Demography lies at the core of this work, from single-population analyses (including Bayesian Survival Trajectory Analysis) to macrodemographic comparisons across populations and species. I co-lead the COMPADRE and COMADRE matrix population databases, open-data resources underpinning comparative demography worldwide. I serve on the governing board of the Nordic Society Oikos (NSO) and the Scientific Committee of the Danish Ornithological Society (DOF), and was Associate Editor at Ecology and Evolution from 2015 to 2026.

PopBio works on demography, life-history evolution, and phenology. I have supervised or hosted eight postdocs and fellows, including two current Gaia MSCA Fellows, four PhD students, and more than thirty-five MSc students.

Recent updates

  • November 2026: Jamie Weir and Pedro Santibañez join PopBio as Gaia MSCA Postdoctoral Fellows.
  • September 2026: Eukaryote Life Histories published open access in Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics.
  • September 2026: Hosted the joint Nordic Society Oikos / GfÖ conference (OIKOS26) in Odense, with around 1,000 attendees.
  • July 2026: Named a Fellow of the British Ecological Society (FBES).
  • May 2026: Social Organisation Predicts Lifespan in Mammals published in Ecology and Evolution.
  • May 2026: European mistletoe demographic strategy paper published in Journal of Ecology.

Current interests

Current work focuses on individual variation in woodland phenology under climate change, supported by the Danish Independent Research Fund, alongside collaborative projects on ageing, social organisation, comparative demography, and phenological responses to environmental change. I recently completed a Novo Nordisk Foundation sabbatical project using large open datasets to quantify global phenological shifts.

Open science, data, and software

I maintain and contribute to open tools and workflows for demographic analysis, including R-based resources and reproducible research practices. I co-lead the COMPADRE and COMADRE databases, which are widely used by researchers globally. See Data & Tools for an overview.

For students and collaborators

I welcome focused enquiries from prospective students and collaborators with shared interests in demography, population ecology, and quantitative methods. See Students & Collaboration for guidance.

Nest Box Project

I run a long-term nest box monitoring project tracking breeding birds in woodland habitats. See the Nest Box Project for details.

Owen R. Jones