Dr Jared Field joins ABC Top Five Media Residency Program

Mathematical Biologist Dr Jared Field is one of five Australian scientists chosen to undertake a two-week residency at ABC Radio National.

The annual ABC Top Five program trains PhD-qualified early-career researchers in the craft of communicating with the nation, with recipients working alongside some of Australia’s best broadcasters at ABC Radio National in developing content across radio and digital platforms.

Dr Field completed a Doctor of Philosophy as a Charles Perkins Scholar at Balliol College, at the University of Oxford, where he studied under the supervision of Professor Mike Bonsall and Professor Philip Maini.

In 2019, he was awarded a three-year Mackenzie Fellowship in Mathematical Biology and Ecology in the School of Mathematics at the University of Melbourne. His project is Bayesian Decision Theory In Studies Of Behaviour: Do They Know What We Think They Know?

His research interests stretch from evolutionary game theory to network algorithms. He has developed mathematical models to interrogate the ‘grandmother hypothesis’, that postulates that certain animals (including humans) have evolved to have extended lives after they stop being fertile because intergenerational care, or grandmothering, improves overall reproductive success of individuals.

A Gomeroi Man, Dr Field believes that STEM is crucial to the self-determination of Indigenous Australians.

Due to the travel and border restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the ABC TOP 5 team are assessing when the residencies can go ahead.