I’m a Research Associate in Urban Ecology on the SUCCESS project (Sustainable Urban Carbon Capture: Engineering Soils for Climate Change) funded by EPSRC. My role involves designing and implementing field experiments to investigate the botanical and invertebrate ecology of urban land designed to have a carbon capture function.
I’m an ecologist by training and have been working on biodiversity conservation in urban environments for over 10 years. I started as a Project Officer at the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust, seeking ways to improve the habitat management of the East Middlesbrough beck valleys for the water vole, a nationally declining mammal. I then spent three years as a professional ecological consultant where I furthered my interest in the ecological design of urban green spaces and the integration of wildlife features within the built environment. In 2007 I moved into academia to start my PhD at the University of Leeds on the ecological and social drivers of biodiversity in private gardens, and in 2011 I began my post-doc career on the Urban Pollinators Project, a UK-wide collaborative project researching the ecology and conservation of insect pollinators in cities.
PhD (University of Leeds, 2012: ‘The socio-ecological drivers of biodiversity in residential landscapes at multiple spatial scales: an interdisciplinary approach’)
MRes Ecology & Environmental Management (University of York, 2003)
BSc (Hons) Zoology (University of Nottingham, 2001)
2011-2014: Research Assistant, Urban Pollinators Project, School of Biology, University of Leeds
2007: Consultant Ecologist, Ecology Consultancy Ltd, London
2004-2007: Consultant Ecologist, EcoSchemes Ltd, Axminster
2005: Volunteer Field Research Assistant, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia
2003 -2004: Water Vole Project Officer, Tees Valley Wildlife Trust
2001–2002: Practical Conservation Volunteer Officer, TCV Nottinghamshire
2014-2018: Steering Committee member and Coordinator of the Urban Socio-ecological Linkages Working Group of US National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network (RCN) project: ‘UrbioNet: A Global Network of Urban Biodiversity Research and Practice’
2014-2015: Core participant in the National Socio-environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) project: ‘Urban Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services’ (University of Maryland)
2014: Guest lecturer for third year undergraduate course Advanced Topics in Zoology (University of Leeds)
2014: Keynote speaker at the RHS Britain in Bloom Finalists Seminar, Stadium of Light, Sunderland.
2013: Grant Reviewer for US National Science Foundation (NSF)
2012: Co-organiser and invited speaker of a symposium at ESA 97th Annual Meeting: ‘Tales from the concrete jungle understanding and sustaining the earth’s urban biodiversity from local to global scales’ (Portland, Oregon)
2011 to date: Core participant in National Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) working group: ‘Comparative ecology of cities: What makes an urban biota ‘urban’‘ (University of California, Santa Barbara)
2010: Session chair at British Ecological Society AGM (University of Leeds)
2010 to date: Reviewer for 16 peer-reviewed journals: Basic & Applied Ecology; Biodiversity & Conservation; Biological Conservation; Diversity & Distributions; Ecological Applications; Ecological Restoration; Ecology & Society; Functional Ecology; Insect Conservation & Diversity; Landscape Ecology; Oikos; Pakistan Journal of Zoology; PLOS ONE; Urban Ecosystems; Urban Forestry& Urban Greening; Wildlife Research
2013: British Ecological Society Training and Travel grant to present a research poster at INTECOL 2013, London (‘The ‘burbs and the bees: Income predicts wild bee diversity in two contrasting city suburbs’)
2012: Member of academic team advising on the design of the University of Leeds gold-medal winning exhibit on urban ecosystem services ‘Gardening for Champions’ at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chelsea Flower Show.
2010: British Ecological Society Training and Travel grant to give a presentation at the URBIO Conference, Nagoya, Japan (‘Scaling up from gardens: Avian diversity in a residential ecosystem’)
Member, British Ecological Society
Associate Member, Chartered Institute of Ecology & Environmental Management (ACIEEM)