Michael Webster

Dr. Michael Webster is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biology at the University of St Andrews. His research focuses on the behavior of group-living animals, including social foraging, competition, information diffusion, and predator-prey dynamics. He investigates the benefits/costs of grouping, mechanisms of group formation, and how individual behaviors shape collective outcomes.

Key research interests include understanding how group structure influences survival strategies, decision-making in social contexts, and the ecological implications of collective behavior. His work spans various taxa, including fish, ants, and arthropods, with a focus on both theoretical and empirical approaches.

Dr. Webster supervises PhD students Melissa Ramsay and Li Veiros. His publications explore topics such as cognitive styles in sticklebacks, climate impacts on fish social behavior, and cooperative predator inspection in fish. He has contributed to popular science through articles like 'Animals learn survival tricks from others – even if they live alone' in The Conversation.

His research integrates experimental fieldwork and computational modeling, often collaborating with international teams. Current projects examine how environmental stressors affect group cohesion and how social learning operates in solitary species.