I carried out my PhD at the University of Sussex, where I published the first scientific data regarding the size and status of free-living honey bee populations in the UK. I also developed methods for assessing the quantity and quality of available nest sites to evaluate their role in limiting free-living populations in Europe. I am now assisting with a project in South West England which aims to reveal the evolutionary origin free-living honey bees. https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=JP46FYEAAAAJ&hl=en

I am an entomologist interested in molecular ecology, evolution, genetics of natural populations and the conservation of biodiversity. I have been especially interested in Hymenoptera since I was a young teenager. More recently, I became interested in fungi and fungal-insect interactions, however, throughout my career I have worked on a range of biological systems

I am interested in the evolutionary and ecological processes that give rise to and maintain extant biodiversity, employing molecular techniques alongside lab and field-based experimental approaches. My research spans a broad range of specific questions, from reproductive isolation and gene flow between populations, to ecological issues such as dispersal and foraging ranges through to species delineation and phylogeny reconstruction. I am increasingly interested in how these processes operate in populations that are declining and thus of conservation concern, and how molecular techniques can inform conservation science both in an applied and theoretical context. My recent research focuses on bee systems (both honeybees and bumblebees), although I am also involved in projects on similar themes focused on a range of other biological systems.