I am a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow and Proleptic Lecturer based at Queen's University Belfast in the School of Biological Sciences. I am also an Associate Editor at Marine Biology, Honorary Research Associate at the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity and Member of the Young Academy of Ireland. Previously, I held a Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. My current Fellowship is entitled Ecosystem resistance to biological invasion and is funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

My research interests broadly gravitate around global changes and their impacts on ecosystems, economies and health. I use a range of experimental and modelling techniques to address research questions. My most recent research has centred around the following specific themes:

• Forecasting effects of environmental changes on invasive alien species impacts;
• Quantifying and predicting economic costs of biological invasions;
• Improving biosecurity to prevent biological invasion and emergent disease risk;
• Developing One Health approaches to pest and disease vector management;
• Understanding food webs and trophic interaction strengths;
• Monitoring pollution loads in aquatic and terrestrial environments

I collaborate widely with colleagues in natural and social sciences within and across these themes. I am open to student supervision in these areas.

Biological invasions, climate change, disease vector biology, ecosystems, plastics pollution, socio-economic impacts, trophic interactions, water quality

Academic history

2025– : Lecturer, Queen's University Belfast

2022–2025: Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, Queen's University Belfast

2020–2022: Visiting Scholar, Queen's University Belfast

2020–2022: Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellow, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel

2019–2024: Honorary Research Associate, South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity

2016–2019: PhD Biology, Queen's University Belfast 

2014–2016: MSc Ecological Management and Conservation Biology (Distinction), Queen's University Belfast (part-time)

2011–2014: BSc (Hons) Geography (First Class), Queen's University Belfast