Tamás Székely (biologist)

Tamás Székely (born 24 May 1959) is a Hungarian born evolutionary biologist, conservationist, and author.

He is a Professor of Biodiversity at the University of Bath, Honorary Professor at the University of Debrecen (Hungary) and visiting Professor at Beijing Normal University (China) and Sun Yat-Sen University (China). Székely was a visiting professor at Harvard University, University of Groningen, Bielefeld and Göttingen.

His research skills include phylogenetic analyses, experimental and observational analyses of behaviour in wild populations, and theoretical modelling. His research interests lie predominantly with mating systems and parental behaviour, breeding systems in shorebirds and conservation of wetland birds.

In 2010 Székely founded an award-winning conservation NGO ‘Maio Biodiversity Foundation’ ^[1] in Cape Verde, West Africa.

Research[edit]

Tamás Székely is an evolutionary biologist interested in the evolution of social behaviour and everything related to social behaviour: ecology, genetic diversity, neurobiology, theoretical biology and phylogenetics. His strength is the combination of different tools, methods and approaches ranging from genes and genomes to complex studies of populations.

Although Székely started off his early career studying forest birds, he quickly shifted his interest to shorebirds (Charadriiformes, sandpipers, plovers and allies) as they exhibit a great variation in their breeding systems, serving as excellent model organisms to answer key questions about the evolution of social behaviours.

His current research is focusing on two major themes 1) the evolution of mating systems, parental care and sex roles where he is trying to understand how male and female reproductive strategies evolved in vertebrates, and 2) adult sex ratio (ASR) which is an overlooked component of social systems (and of breeding system variation). In the latter, he aims to reveal the causes and implications of ASR variation in vertebrates.

Scientific findings[edit]

Tamas Székely has made major contributions to the field of animal behaviour and ecology. His research on sexual dimorphism, mating systems and sex ratios is internationally recognised. He has shown that the main driver of sexual size dimorphism is sexual selection; competition for mates does not only select for larger body sizes but in some cases also for smaller ones when competition requires agility ^[2]. In regards to sex role behaviour, he has shown that certain ecological factors can promote parental co-operation, while others promote parental conflict. Székely’s main study organism is the Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus), a small ground-nesting shorebird. He showed that social environment and the adult sex ratio has an influence on the evolution of mating systems and parental care, therefore linking sex roles to sex ratios.

Education and career[edit]

In 1983 Tamas Székely graduated from Kossuth University (now the University of Debrecen), Hungary, as a teacher of biology and chemistry. In 1983 he undertook his a PhD on foraging ecology of forest birds at Kossuth University. After completing his PhD in 1986, he became a research assistant with the Hungarian Ornithological Society in Budapest. After a Soros-scholarship funded post-doctoral research at the Edward Grey Institute, Oxford, he took up a lecturer position in animal behaviour at Kossuth University in 1988 and established possibly the first behavioural ecology research group in Eastern Europe (the VÖCS), which he led until 1994. Székely continued his university career at the University of Bristol in 1995 and then moved to the University of Bath in 2000, where he became a lecturer and in 2007, a Professor of Biodiversity. In 2010 he founded the Maio Biodiversity Foundation in Cape Verde, a conservation NGO focusing on the protection and conservation of birds, sharks, sea turtles and whales. In 2016, Székely was a Fellow of Institute of Advanced Studies (WIKO)^[3] in Berlin and led a research group there. In 2018, he started the ÉLVONAL ^[4] project funded by the Hungarian Government, a four-year long project focusing on sex role evolution in shorebirds. Székely compiled a large international network of scientists working on 30 different shorebird species in 26 locations worldwide towards one common goal.

Education & Career summary[edit]

2007 - Professor of Biodiversity, University of Bath

2006 - 2007 Reader in Evolutionary Biology, University of Bath

2004 - 2005 Senior Lecturer in Evolutionary Biology, University of Bath

2000 - 2004 Lecturer in Evolutionary Biology, University of Bath

1997 - 2000 Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Bristol

1995 - 1997 Postdoctoral Research Assistant, University of Bristol

1989 - 1995 Lecturer in Animal Behaviour, Department of Zoology, Kossuth University

1988 - 1989 Research Scientist, Department of Zoology, Kossuth University

1986 - 1988 Research Assistant, Hungarian Ornithological Society, Budapest

1983 - 1986 Ph.D. in Animal Ecology, Department of Ecology, Kossuth University, Debrecen, Hungary.

1978 - 1983 Diploma and Teaching Certificate in Biology and Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Kossuth University, Debrecen.

Awards and recognition[edit]

Tamas Szekely holds several awards including the Humboldt Prize Award and the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. Székely became a foreign member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 2019. He received the Honorary Plaquette of Kazincbarcika City (Hungary) in 2019, and in 2020 he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Kingdom of Hungary (Magyar Érdemrend).

Publications[edit]

Székely has authored or co-authored 324 scientific papers, including 4 successful books. 22 publications have been published in Nature, Science, Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences USA or Current Biology. Over 12,000 references were made to the publications, with an H-index of 63. He has supervised or co-supervised 35 PhD students and mentored 20 post-doctoral students and research fellows. Székely is fully committed to his role as supervisor and he sparks an interest in shorebirds and social behaviour in students worldwide. Most of his former students chose a career path in academia and are now professors, head of institutes or are independent researchers.

Top 10 publications[edit]

Kubelka, V., M. Šálek, P. Tomkovich, Zs. Végvári, R. Freckleton & T. Székely. 2018. Global pattern of nest predation is disrupted by climate change in shorebirds. Science 362: 680-683.^[5]

Remeš, V., R. P. Freckleton, J. Tökölyi, A. Liker & T. Székely. 2015. The evolution of parental cooperation in birds. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, US 112: 13603-13608.^[6]

Pipoly, I., V. Bókony, M. Kirkpatrick, P. F. Donald, T. Székely & A. Liker. 2015. The genetic sex-determination system predicts adult sex ratios in tetrapods. Nature 527: 91 – 94. *Equal contribution.^[7]

Székely, T., F. J. Weissing & J. Komdeur. 2014. Adult sex ratio variation: implications for breeding system evolution. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 27: 1500-1512.^[8]

Liker, A., R. P. Freckleton & T. Székely. 2013. The evolution of sex roles in birds is related to adult sex ratio. Nature Communications 4: 1587.^[9]

Székely, T., A. J. Moore & J. Komdeur (eds). 2010. Social behaviour: genes, ecology and evolution. Cambridge University Press, 1-562.^[10]

Fairbairn, D., W. Blanckenhorn & T. Székely (eds). 2007. Sex, size and gender roles. Evolutionary studies of sexual size dimorphism. Oxford University Press, 1-266.^[11]

Houston, A. I., T. Székely & J. M. McNamara. 2005. Conflict over parental care. Trends in Ecol Evol 20: 33-38.^[12]

Székely, T., R. P. Freckleton & J. D. Reynolds. 2004. Sexual selection explains Rensch’s rule of size dimorphism in shorebirds. Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences US 101: 12224 - 12227.^[13]

Blomqvist D., M. Andersson, C. Küpper, I. C. Cuthill, J. Kis, R. B. Lanctot, B. K. Sandercock, T. Székely, J. Wallander & B. Kempenaers. 2002. Genetic similarity between mates explains extra-pair parentage in three species of waders. Nature 419: 613-615.^[14]

References[edit]

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