Nadia Richman

Since my PhD and prior to my current postdoc position here at UCL, I worked as a consultant writing papers for the International Institute for the Environment and Development (IIED) and the International Whaling Commission.

More about Dr Richman

I have a BSc in Marine Biology and Polluted Ecosystems from the University of Portsmouth (graduated 2005) and an MSc in Freshwater and Coastal Sciences from the University College London (graduated 2007). Following my MSc, I worked at the Zoological Society of London where for 3 years I coordinated species extinction risk assessments of freshwater species using the IUCN Red List categories and criteria.

These assessments formed part of a wider project called the Sampled Red List Index project which aims to create a less biased global biodiversity indicator through the coverage of a larger number of the more diverse, less charismatic species groups (i.e. invertebrates). It was my research on extinction risk data gaps that led me to create a PhD, in collaboration with the Zoological Society of London, Bangor University and the University of St Andrews, on methods for addressing knowledge gaps on the poorly-known Ganges River dolphin.

During my PhD I was awarded a NERC fellowship within the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology where I spent 3 months learning about the policy-making process; writing a policy brief on the environmental impacts of tidal barrages; and, working on the Severn Barrage public enquiry.

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Publications

• Dewhurst Richman, N., et al. (submitted) Fishing for the facts: drivers and levels of river dolphin bycatch in a freshwater fishery. Animal Conservation.
• Dewhurst Richman, N., et al. (in prep) Temporal patterns in the abundance of the Ganges River dolphin in southern Bangladesh.
• Dewhurst Richman N., et al. (2016) Balancing carrots and sticks: incentives for sustainable hilsa fishery management in Bangladesh. IIED, London.
• Butchart, S., Clarke, M., Smith, R.J., Sykes, R.E., Scharlemann, J.P.W., Harfoot, M., Buchanan, G.M., Angulo, A., Balmford, A.,  Bertzky, B., Brooks, T.M., Carpenter, K.E., Comeros-Raynal, M.T., Cornell, J., Ficetola, G.F., Fishpool, L.D.C., Fuller, R.A., Geldmann, J., Harwell, H., Hilton-Taylor, C., Hoffmann, M., Joolia, A., Joppa, L., Kingston, N., May, I., Milam, A., Polidoro, B., Ralph, G., Richman, N., Rondinini, C., Segan, D., Skolnik, B., Spalding, M., Stuart, S.N., Symes, A., Taylor, J., Visconti, P., Watson, J., Wood, L. & N.D. Burgess (2015) Shortfalls and solutions for meeting national and global conservation area targets. Conservation Letters. 8 (5): 329 – 337. 
• Richman, N., et al. (2015) Multiple drivers of decline in the global status of freshwater crayfish (Decapoda: Astacidea). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. 370 (1662): 20140060.
• Richman, N., et al. (2014) To see or not to see: investigating Ganges River dolphin detectability using a combined visual-acoustic survey. PLoS ONE. 9 (5): e96811.
• Richman, N.I. (2013) Environmental Impact of Tidal Barrages. Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology Note Number 435.
• Collen, B., Whitton, F., Dyer, E.E., Baillie, J.E.M., Cumberlidge, N., Darwall, W.R.T., Pollock, C., Richman, N.I., Soulsby, A.-M. & Böhm, M. (2013) Global patterns of freshwater species diversity, threat and endemism. Global Ecology and Biogeography. 23 (1): 40 – 51. 
• Böhm, M., et al. (2013) The conservation status of the world's reptiles. Biological Conservation 157, 372–385.
• Michael Hoffmann, Craig Hilton-Taylor, Ariadne Angulo, Monika Böhm, Thomas M. Brooks, Stuart H. M. Butchart, Kent E. Carpenter, Janice Chanson, Ben Collen, Neil A. Cox, William R. T. Darwall, Nicholas K. Dulvy, Lucy R. Harrison, Vineet Katariya, Caroline M. Pollock, Suhel Quader, Nadia I. Richman et al. (2010) The Impact of Conservation on the Status of the World’s Vertebrates. Science. 330: 1503-1509.

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Other Publications

• Dewhurst Richman, N., (in press) A review of the causes of Unusual Mortality Events (UMEs) in cetaceans. International Whaling Commission Technical Report.
• Kemp, R., Peters, H., Allcock, A., Carpenter, K., Obura, D., Polidoro, B., Richman, N. (2012) Marine Invertebrate Life. In: Collen, B., Böhm, M., Kemp, R. & Baillie, J.E.M. (Eds.) Spineless: status and trends of the world's invertebrates. Zoological Society of London, United Kingdom.
• Sibley, P.J., Holdich, D.M. and Richman, N. (2011) Monitoring the global status of crayfish, with particular reference to the White-clawed crayfish. In: Rees, M., Nightingale, J., Holdich, D.M. (Eds.) Species Survival: Securing white-clawed crayfish in a changing environment. Proceedings of a conference held on 16th and 17th November 2010 in Bristol, UK.
• Hoffmann, M., Richman, N., McRae, L., Hilton-Taylor, C. and Böhm, M. (2010) Vertebrata. In: Baillie, J.E.M., Griffiths, J., Turvey, S.T., Loh, J., & Collen, B. (Eds.). Evolution Lost: Status and Trends of the World’s Vertebrates. Zoological Society of London, United Kingdom.
• Collen, B., Ram, M., Dewhurst, N., Clausnitzer, V., Kalkman, V. J., Cumberlidge, N. and Baillie, J.E.M. (2009). Broadening the coverage of biodiversity assessments. In: Vié, J. C., Hilton-Taylor, C. and Stuart, S. (Eds.). Wildlife in a Changing World: An Analysis of the 2008 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. 180pp.

Research

For my PhD research, I explored the uses of local informant data for studying the poorly-known Ganges River dolphin in Bangladesh, as well as producing an up-to-date population estimate using a capture-recapture analysis. During my research, I developed an interest in the use of citizens as local environment monitors and established a small community monitoring group to collect data on dolphin mortalities.

As of April 2018, I have been working on the European H2020-funded Doing It Together Science (DITOS) project, involving 11 European partners to increase European engagement with citizen science.

My research interests include: addressing global biodiversity gaps; citizen science as a tool for addressing human-wildlife conflict and environmental data deficiencies; optimising ethics procedures in participatory research; and science communication.