I study paths: the courses individual lives take from birth to death, through growth, reproduction and, for some, dispersal to new places. I study how these individual paths add up to the dynamics and persistence of populations. Individual differences, encounters with conspecifics and other species, and a changing environment all bend these paths. To understand them, from small mammals in the Alps to large carnivores in African savannas, I combine observations from the wild with ecological and evolutionary theory and quantitative methods.
My own path was not a straight one. I started in economics in Istanbul before finding my way to biology, driven by curiosity about pretty much anything with a heartbeat—the stranger, the better.
Few things move science forward like shared curiosity: questioning what we think we know, and heading into the unknown together. I suspect that helping young scientists find their own paths may ultimately be more meaningful than any individual contribution I make to research.
In my free time, I keep moving, in any form, often outdoors. Perhaps this is where research and life meet: a path is more than its rates, distances and destinations. What happens along the way matters.
Research interests
Population ecology, biodemography, life-history theory, evolutionary demography, metapopulation dynamics, wildlife disease dynamics, quantitative methods in wildlife ecology, conservation biology, biodiversity monitoring.
CV
- Since 2024, Professor of Population Ecology, University of Zurich
- 2017–2024, Associate Professor of Population Ecology, University of Zurich
- 2012–2017, Assistant Professor of Population Ecology, University of Zurich
- 2011–2012, NERC Advanced Research Fellow, Imperial College London
- 2010–2011, Postdoctoral Researcher / Darwin College Fellow, University of Cambridge
- 2008–2010, Postdoctoral Researcher, Imperial College London
- 2006–2008, Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Florida
- 2001–2006, PhD in Wildlife Ecology & Conservation, University of Florida
- 1999–2001, MSc in Environmental Sciences, Bosphorus University
- 1994–1999, BA in Economics and Administrative Sciences, Bosphorus University
Office Y19-M-09
Email (@uzh.ch) arpat.ozgul