Experience

Lewis A. Jones
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Vigo, Spain
LewisAlan.Jones@uvigo.es

Education

PhD in Earth Sciences (2016–2020)
Imperial College London, London, UK
Research advisors: Dr Philip D. Mannion & Prof. Peter A. Allison
Thesis title: On the detectability of the latitudinal biodiversity gradient in deep time

MPhysGeog in Physical Geography (2011–2015)
University of Hull, Hull, UK
Research advisor: Prof. David P.G. Bond
Thesis title: The End-Triassic mass extinction. An investigation of the British Geological Record: testing for the role of volcanism and ocean anoxia

CMI (Level 5) in Management and Leadership (2012–2015)
Leeds University Officer Training Corps, Leeds, UK

Employment

Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Juan de la Cierva) (2023–current)
Mapas Lab, Centro de Investigación Mariña, Universidade de Vigo, Vigo, Spain

Postdoctoral Research Fellow (European Research Council) (2021–2022)
Mapas Lab, Centro de Investigación Mariña, Universidade de Vigo, Vigo, Spain

Graduate Teaching Assistant (2016–2021)
Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK

Student Hall’s Warden (2016–2021)
Woodward Buildings, Imperial College London, London, UK

British Army Officer Cadet (2012–2015)
Leeds University Officer Training Corps, Leeds, UK

Sales Assistant (2010–2012)
Republic Ltd, Grimsby and Hull, UK

Baker (2008–2010)
Muffin Break, Grimsby, UK

Research focus

  • Macroecology and biodiversity
  • Fossil record bias
  • Corals and reef ecosystems
  • Palaeoclimate
  • R programming

Publications

Peer-reviewed publications

  1. Lewis A. Jones, William Gearty, Bethany J. Allen, Kilian Eichenseer, Christopher D. Dean, Sofía Galván, Miranta Kouvari, Pedro L. Godoy, Cecily Nicholl, Lucas Buffan, Erin M. Dillon, Joseph T. Flannery-Sutherland and A. Alessandro Chiarenza (2023). palaeoverse: A community-driven R package to support palaeobiological analysis. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. View video abstract.

  2. Lewis A. Jones, Philip D. Mannion, Alexander Farnsworth, Fran Bragg, Daniel J. Lunt (2022). Climatic and tectonic drivers shaped the tropical distribution of coral reefs. Nature Communications 13 (3120), 1–10. View graphical abstract.

  3. Lewis A. Jones and Kilian Eichenseer (2022). Uneven spatial sampling distorts reconstructions of Phanerozoic seawater temperature. Geology 50 (2), 238–242. View graphical abstract.

  4. Lewis A. Jones, Christopher D. Dean, Philip D. Mannion, Alexander Farnsworth, Peter A. Allison (2021). Spatial sampling heterogeneity limits the detectability of deep time latitudinal biodiversity gradients. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 288 (1945), 20202762. View graphical abstract.

  5. Lewis A. Jones, Philip D. Mannion, Alexander Farnsworth, Paul Valdes, Sarah-Jane Kelland, and Peter A. Allison (2019). Coupling of palaeontological and neontological reef coral data improves forecasts of biodiversity responses under global climatic change. Royal Society Open Science 6 (4), 182111. View graphical abstract.

  6. Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, Philip D. Mannion, Daniel Lunt, Alexander Farnsworth, Lewis A. Jones, Sarah-Jane Kelland, and Peter A. Allison (2019). Ecological niche modelling does not support climatically-driven dinosaur diversity decline before the Cretaceous/Paleogene mass extinction. Nature Communications 10 (1091), 1–14. View graphical abstract.

Theses

  1. Lewis A. Jones (2020). On the detectability of latitudinal biodiversity gradients in deep time. PhD Thesis. Imperial College London. Supervisors: Dr Philip D. Mannion and Prof. Peter A. Allison.

  2. Lewis A. Jones (2015). The end-Triassic mass extinction. An investigation of the British geological record: testing for the role of volcanism and ocean anoxia. Master Thesis. Supervisor: Dr David Bond.

Other works

  1. Lewis A. Jones (2022). Book review: Timefulness: How thinking like a geologist can help save the world. The Palaeontological Association Newsletter 110.

  2. Michael Stevens, Yiqiao Chen, Alex Stringer, Caitlin Clemmow, and Lewis A. Jones (2020). Key factors driving obesity in the UK. GISRUK.

  3. Lewis A. Jones (2020). Meeting report: 13th International Symposium of Fossil Cnidaria and Porifera. The Palaeontological Association Newsletter 102.

Academic awards and grants

R for Palaeobiologists: Workshop and Hackathon (2022)
Grant-in-Aid from The Palaeontological Association, UK
Value: 2000 GBP

CASA team hackathon award (2019)
Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London, London
Value: 250 GBP

Travel grant award (2019)
Palaeontological Association
Value: 220 EUR

President’s PhD Scholarship (2016)
Imperial College London, London, UK
Value: 70,000 GBP

Roger Ward thesis award (2015)
University of Hull, Hull, UK

Invited presentations

PalaeoSIG (British Ecological Society): Masterclass in R (2022)
Talk: Into the palaeoverse: a community-driven R package

Getech PLC (2018)
Talk: Ecological modelling in Geosciences

Selected conference presentations

The Palaeontological Association: Annual Meeting (2022)
Poster: Niche characterisation is biased by limited and heterogeneous spatial sampling

Simposio de Paleontologia del noroeste peninsular (2022)
Poster: palaeoverse: a community-driven R package

The Palaeontological Association: Annual Meeting (2019)
Talk: Poor spatial sampling coverage obscures our understanding of the latitudinal biodiversity gradient in deep time
Poster: Uneven spatial sampling in Phanerozoic palaeoclimate curves

13th International Symposium on Fossil Cnidaria and Porifera (2019)
Talk: The evolution of the latitudinal biodiversity gradient in zooxanthellate corals

The past is a foreign country: how much can the fossil record actually inform conservation? (2019)
Poster: Looking through the palaeontological window: reducing geographical and environmental bias in forecasting biodiversity responses

Crossing the Palaeontological–Ecological Gap (2018)
Talk: Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence: quantifying reef coral range shifts under global climatic change

BES Macroecology (2018)
Talk: Anthropogenic climate change and transitional distribution ranges of reef corals: insights from the last Pleistocene interglacial

The Palaeontological Association: Annual Meeting (2017)
Poster: Ecological niche modelling in deep time: constraining the transitional distribution ranges of reef corals

European Coral Reef Symposium (2017)
Poster: Anthropogenic climate change and transitional distribution ranges of reef corals: insights from the last Pleistocene interglacial

Fieldwork experience

León, Spain (2022)
Logging and bulk sampling of Devonian sequences

Colorado and New Mexico, USA (2016)
Logging, sampling, and fossil prospecting across the Cenomanian/Turonian boundary

Somerset, Lyme Regis, and Newark, UK (2015)
Logging, sampling, and geochemical analysis across the Triassic/Jurassic boundary

Koh Rong, Cambodia (2012)
Marine biological surveys as part of Koh Rong’s (Cambodia) coral reef monitoring project

Professional development

Macroevolution and Phylogenies (2022)
Transmitting Science, Online

Data manipulation and Statistical Analysis in Palaeoecology (2021)
Palaeoecology Group, British Ecological Society, Online

Doctoral Summer School for Advanced Spatial Modelling (2019)
The Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London, London, UK

Species distribution modelling: fundamentals and the future workshop (2019)
University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

Advanced ecological niche modelling (2018)
University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

Introduction to ecological niche modelling (2017)
Transmitting Science, Barcelona, Spain

Introduction to coral identification (2017)
European Coral Reef Symposium, Oxford, UK

Introduction to larval dispersal modelling (2017)
European Coral Reef Symposium, Oxford, UK

Student supervision

Miranta Kouvari (2019–2023)
University College London, London, UK
PhD project: The latitudinal biodiversity gradient of South American eutherians

Lucas Buffan (2021–2022)
University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain
Master’s project: Spatial discrepancies in palaeogeographic reconstructions

Teaching and pastoral care

Graduate Teaching Assistant (2016–2021)
Imperial College London, London, UK

  • Palaeobiology I
  • Palaeobiology II
  • Dorset (UK) geology field course
  • Almería (Spain) geology field course

Student Hall’s Warden (2016–2021)
Woodward Buildings, Imperial College London, London, UK

Professional service and outreach

IFCRS Early Career Researcher Representative (2021–current)
Committee member of the International Fossil Coral and Reef Society (IFCRS)

IFCRS Lecture Series (2022)
International Fossil Coral and Reef Society, Online
Co-organised and ran a lecture series on fossil corals and reefs

IFCRS Early Career Researcher Symposium (2021)
International Fossil Coral and Reef Society, Online
Co-organised and ran an early career researcher meeting on fossil corals and reefs

Fossil Fact or Fiction stall (2019)
Einstein’s Garden, Green Man Festival, Brecon Beacons, Wales
Co-ran a stall on fossil record bias over the course of the festival, find out more here!

Ecological niche modelling workshop (2018)
Imperial College London, London, UK
Co-organised and ran a workshop on ecological niche modelling

Palaeontological Association meeting (2017)
Imperial College London, London, UK
Co-organised and ran the annual meeting of the Palaeontological Association

Peer-review experience

Science Advances
Nature Communications
Scientific Reports
Ecological Monographs

Skills

R programming
Advanced proficiency in data analysis, data visualization, writing functions and packages

Geocomputation
Proficient in spatial analysis and the use of R spatial packages (e.g. raster, terra, sf, sp)

Languages
Spanish (CEFR B1)
Mandarin Chinese (HSK1)

SCUBA diver
BSAC-accredited Ocean and Sports Diver

First-Aid
Emergency first-aid at work & automated external defibrillator
Outdoors emergency first-aid
Mental health first-aid
Active-bystander

Driving
Full UK driving license

Memberships

Member of the International Fossil Coral and Reef Society (2018–present)
Member of the Palaeontological Association (2017–present)
Member of the Conservation Paleobiology Network (2019–present)
Member of the British Ecological Society (2017–present)