Beth graduated with an MSci Mathematics degree from the University of Birmingham in 2021, where she developed a keen interest for mathematical biology and in particular, topics with interdisciplinary or real-world applications. As part of her final year project, she devised a new, agent-based model of collective motion, specifically designed to recreate the murmuration phenomena commonly observed in large flocks of starlings. Now for her PhD Beth has swapped birds for fish, with the aim of her project to develop a series of mathematical models to describe the fascinating collective behaviour of the Trinidadian guppy fish. She even had the opportunity to plan and carry out some of her own experiments at the University of Exeter.

Beth is a passionate advocate for women and under-represented groups in STEM, and during her time at SAMBa organised many departmental events for Ada Lovelace Day and International Women’s Day, as well as serving as the local committee lead for the Piscopia Initiative. She also got “on the box” and presented her research at Soapbox Science Exeter in 2023. Outside of mathematics, Beth likes to spend her free time reading, baking, knitting, and going on long dog walks on the beach.

Research project title:
Collective Motion Under Non-Reciprocal Pairwise Interactions

Supervisor(s):
Richard James, Tim Rogers

Project description:
Preliminary experimental work and mathematical modelling suggest that sexual conflict can give rise to non-reciprocal interactions and anomalously fast diffusion of pairs of Trinidadian Guppies (Poecilia reticulata). In the long-term, their behaviour also results in key ecological and evolutionary processes such as population dispersal and invasion of alien species. To combine the biology of pairwise interactions through to population level consequences will require mathematical models of processes at different time, spatial and social scales. In biological terms, such problems lie at the intersection of movement ecology and collective behaviour. Using mathematical techniques from agent-based modelling, mean-field and coarse-grained approximations and continuous time PDE modelling, the aim of the project is to develop a general framework, or suite of mathematical models, to interpolate between and extrapolate from one social, spatial and temporal scale to the next, modelling the effect on non-reciprocal social forces in Trinidadian Guppies on large-scale population structure and the ecological and evolutionary consequences of their behaviour.

Visit Beth’s website:
bethmstokes.github.io