Martin Carr

Martin Carr is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Physical and Life Sciences within the School of Applied Sciences at the University of Huddersfield. He is also a Member of the Evolutionary Genomics Research Centre and holds an Associate Membership with the Cellular and Molecular Models of Disease Centre. Dr. Carr is actively accepting PhD students and has a research profile that spans evolutionary biology, genomics, and protistology.

His educational background includes Biochemistry and Genetics studies followed by a PhD in population genetics from the University of Nottingham. His postdoctoral career took him to the Natural History Museum in London, UCL, and the Universities of York and Leeds, where he developed expertise in bioinformatics, phylogenetics, and population genetics.

Dr. Carr's research focuses on the eukaryotic supergroup Opisthokonta, particularly on choanoflagellates as the sister-group to animals. His work explores how animals evolved from unicellular ancestors through genomic and molecular analyses. Additional research interests include transposable elements, genome evolution, and the population genetics of these genetic parasites. His fingerprint analysis shows strong emphasis on Choanoflagellata (100%), DNA Transposable Elements (38%), Phylogeny (31%), Genome (25%), and Retroelements (23%).

His publication record shows consistent output since 2001, with recent publications in 2025, 2023, and 2022 spanning topics from choanoflagellate phylogeny to protistan origins of animals and fungi. His work demonstrates a clear focus on molecular evolution and the genomic basis of evolutionary transitions, particularly the animal-fungal-protist relationships within Opisthokonta.

Dr. Carr is an active member of the scientific community, serving as Treasurer of the British Society of Protist Biology (BSPB) since 2009 and as a committee member since that time. He is also a member of the Genetics Society. His professional activities include numerous peer reviews for journals like Nature Communications and Open Biology, as well as oral presentations at conferences.

His research contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goals related to understanding biodiversity and evolutionary processes. With a Google Scholar h-index of 18 from 2,268 citations, his work has gained significant recognition in the field of evolutionary biology and protistology.