I am an urban ecologist interested in biodiversity conservation and the provision of ecosystem services in cities. I have worked on a diverse range of large interdisciplinary research projects across the UK, including:

• Self-Repairing Cities (University of Leeds): researching the impact of automating cities with robots on urban biodiversity and ecosystem function
• SUCCESS (Sustainable Urban Carbon Capture: Engineering Soils for Climate Change, Newcastle University): investigating the trade-offs and synergies between carbon capture and other urban ecosystem services
• Urban Pollinators: their Ecology and Conservation (University of Leeds): researching the current status of cities for UK pollinators and examining methods for enhancing urban habitats

In 2012, I completed my interdisciplinary PhD at Leeds on the ecological and social drivers of bird and bee diversity in residential landscapes. This work has led to an interest in how we can incentivise householders, communities and local authorities to manage cities more sympathetically for wildlife. This involves an understanding of how socio-economic factors and human decision-making influence the management of private gardens and other green spaces at multiple scales in urban ecosystems.

Collaborative research projects

I have collaborated with overseas researchers on a number of international urban biodiversity projects, including:

• NCEAS Working Group (University of California, Santa Barbara) that has compiled the largest database to date of the flora and avifauna of cities around the world. 'Comparative Ecology of Cities: What Makes an Urban Biota 'Urban'?'.
• SESYNC project (University of Maryland/SDiv Leipzig,Germany) on planning and policy approaches to managing urban biodiversity and ecosystem services. 'Ecological and Social Linkages among Biodiversity, Ecosystem Services, and Environmental Policy and Management in the World’s Cities.
• US National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Coordination Network grant to build a global network called UrBioNet to support urban biodiversity research, monitoring and practice. 'UrBioNet: A Global Network for Urban Biodiversity Research and Practice'.

For more information please see my profile on Google Scholar or Twitter