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Prof Kate Jones
Chair of Ecology and Biodiversity
Genetics, Evolution & Environment
Div of Biosciences
- Joined UCL
- 30th Apr 2012
Research summary
Professor Kate Jones’ research focuses on exploring how ecological and evolutionary processes produce global biodiversity patterns to understand how future global change will impact wild nature. Kate’s biodiversity modelling research has specifically focused on the ecology and evolution of mammals, especially bats, to understand drivers of population and species extinction. Her research also models the relationships between wildlife and people to understand how climate change and other future global changes will impact the burden of human infectious diseases from wildlife (like Ebola or SARS). In order to improve global biodiversity models, Kate’s research also investigates how to improve current biodiversity monitoring to engage citizen scientists and develop new algorithms for automatically classifying species using artificial intelligence. Kate has led the development of novel global citizen science programmes with The Bat Conservation Trust involving thousands of volunteers all over the world to monitor bat populations acoustically, collaborating extensively with national conservation NGOs and governments.
Teaching summary
Kate was the Director of the MRes in Biodiversity, Evolution and Conservation from 2012-2017 which is run jointly with University College London, The Zoological Society of London and The Natural History Museum, London. Kate now runs a Science Communication for Biologists module for the MRes and MSci Biological Science students.
Education
- University of Surrey
- PhD, Evolution | 1998
- University of Leeds
- BSc Hons, Zoology | 1993
Biography
Kate Jones is Professor of Ecology and Biodiversity, Director of the Biodiversity Modelling Research Group in the Centre for Biodiversity and Environmental Research (CBER), within the Research Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment (GEE) at University College London. Kate Jones is a world-leading biodiversity modeller known for her innovative, broad cross-disciplinary research in the linkages between global change, biodiversity and ecosystem services, winning the Philip Leverhulme Prize for outstanding contributions to Zoology in 2008. Kate holds scientific advisory positions for a number of national and international conservation charities and was the Chair of The Bat Conservation Trust from 2010-2015. She also directs a number of citizen science projects monitoring biodiversity globally. Kate is a passionate science communicator and regularly appears in the national and international media, including the Life Scientific on BBC Radio 4 in 2015. Allegedly*, Charles Darwin is her 8th cousin (6 times removed).
*ancestry.co.uk