Oliver Pybus is an interdisiplinary biologist who is recognised for his development of and contributions to the field of phylodynamics, which aims to understand how evolutionary and ecological processes interact in natural populations. He developed tools for inferring population dynamics from gene sequences and showed how analysis of pathogen genomes can provide new empirical insights into virus epidemic history, transmission dynamics, and molecular adaptation. He continues to develop phylodynamic approaches and extend their application to new fields, including immunology and cell biology.
Oliver is currently Vice Principal for Research & Innovation at the Royal Veterinary College London and also holds a Professorship in Evolution & Infectious Disease at the University of Oxford. He is a Professorial Fellow of New College, Oxford. He was awarded the Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society of London in 2009 and the Mary Lyon Medal of the Genetics Society in 2019. He lives with his family in Oxford and outside of science he plays the guitar and 5-a-side football poorly yet enthusiastically.
Professional position
- Professor of Evolution and Infectious Disease, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford
- Professor of Infectious Diseases, Department of Pathobiology and Population Sciences, Royal Veterinary College
Subject groups
- Biochemistry and molecular cell biology
Molecular microbiology
- Microbiology, immunology and developmental biology
General microbiology (incl bacteriology and virology), Genetics (excluding population genetics)
- Organismal biology, evolution and ecology
Biological statistics, Ecology (incl behavioural ecology), Epidemiology (non-clinical), Evolution, Population genetics, Taxonomy and systematics
