Emma

I founded ABC and the umbrella charity Conservation Research Africa (www.conservationresearchafrica.org). I am an Honorary Research Fellow at Cardiff University and the University of Bristol UK, and am based in Malawi directing all our programmes. I have worked in Africa since 1998 when I conducted biodiversity research for three years in the remote Kafue National Park, Zambia, and then worked in a wildlife centre managing community education and outreach projects.

My research focus is applied conservation biology with a strong emphasis on evidence based conservation, in particular human-wildlife conflict management, mitigating anthropogenic impacts on the environment, and assessing patterns and drivers of diversity and abundance. I have been conducting bat research in Africa (particularly Zambia, Malawi and South Africa) since 1998 and conducted my PhD research in the Bat Ecology and Bioacoustics Lab at the University of Bristol, UK on the impact of development on bats with a focus on the ecological impacts of artificial lighting.

I developed a novel field-based experimental approach which demonstrated the first evidence of negative impacts of high pressure sodium and LED street-lights on bats. I have secured over £1.5million in research grants since 2005 and published (464 citations, H-Index 7) in high impact journals including Current Biology and Global Change Biology and Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

April 2018