Emeritus Professor of Bioscience
Teaching and supervision
I supervise doctoral students across various enviornmental science disciplines, typically related to health. and in higher education.
Research
Much of my work concerns biological adaptations to an extreme environment: tropical rocky shores, particularly the upper shore where rock temperatures regularly exceed 60oC. I use biological computation methods to model behaviour in response to stress and unravel the basis of decision-making processes.
Latterly I have become interested in how students, academic staff and the ‘elite’ in higher education understand assessment. Research here has established that ‘assessment’, a concept used widely in all education sectors is very poorly understood. There is little commonality between and within groups of students, academic staff, and academic developers operating at a national level. If staff don’t sing with a single voice on assessment, how can we expect our students to understand what we expect from them?
- Climate change biology
- Health effects of anthropogenic environmental factors
- Assessment in Higher Education
- National Teaching Fellow
Associate Editor, Journal of Molluscan Studies
- Evaluator, European Union Framework Programme 7 and Horizon 2020
Evaluator for many national research bodies in Europe
Accreditor, and Principal Fellow, The Higher Education Academy
Reviewer/Auditor, The Quality Assurance Agency
Review Chair and reviewer for national quality bodies in, for example, Albania, Hong Kong, Lithuania, Macao, Saudi Arabia
- Membership of external bodies
President and Councillor, the Malacological Society of London (2009-2012)
Council member, Unitas Malacologica (2010-2016)
Member, Marine Biological Association of the UK
Member, The Ray Society