Spotlight on... Professor Jon Bridle

What is your role and where are you based?

I’m a Professor of Evolutionary Biology and Director of the Centre for Biodiversity and Environment Research (CBER), which is part of the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment. I’m based at UCL's Bloomsbury campus, but since 2022 CBER staff and students are also located at UCL East, in our fantastic People and Nature Lab. 

What does your role involve? What impact do you hope to make?

As Director of CBER, my role is to be a beacon for our research on biodiversity, evolution and ecology at all levels of biological organisation, from genes to cells to populations and ecosystems – and to connect this research with other centres across GEE, as well as with researchers across UCL and beyond, from social scientists and geographers, to those working on disease, public health, and food security , along with engineers and architects, policy makers and conservation bodies.

The impact we hope for is that the fundamental value of biodiversity for economic resilience, and for social justice and equity, is recognised at all levels, and that the rapid loss of nature is stopped and reversed in coming decades. That we start to become better ancestors – and begin to live on this planet as if we intend to stay here. An ambitious hope I know (!) – but the livelihoods, peace and happiness of our children and grandchildren depend on this.

As a scientist, I’m especially interested in what determines maximum rates of evolution in response to environmental change. This involves analysing trait and genetic and genomic variation, and its effects on fitness in natural populations.

How long have you been at UCL and what was your previous role?

I came to UCL in 2020, after 14 years at the University of Bristol. Apart from building up and running a research group there, I worked a lot in science communication, including collaborations with artists like Katie Paterson and Maria Thereza Alves, and with the BBC Natural History Unit. I also helped set up Bristol’s Cabot Institute for the Environment, trying, as always, to convince that protecting biodiversity, and the ecological resilience it creates, should be at the heart of all economic and political decisions. 

Tell us about a project you are working on now, which is top of your to-do list.

I was on the committee that drafted UCL’s Sustainability Plan for the next ten years, a strategy which makes Biodiversity Net Gain a fundamental aim for the first time, alongside that of Net Zero in terms of carbon dioxide. We also commit to continued UCL attendance at the Biodiversity as well as Climate COP meetings, along with joining the Nature Positive Universities Network. This is a landmark moment for UCL’s commitment to sustainability, and highlights how we are addressing the climate and ecological emergency as twin crises that we must consider in tandem to face effectively.

Reducing UCL and society’s negative impacts on biodiversity is an area where UCL can have real traction, in terms of how and what we buy (we spend close to a billion pounds a year on goods and services), the conversations we start with our thousands of staff, students and their friends and families, and how we manage the green spaces we have control and influence on around our campuses, and use them to highlight the importance of biodiversity. Our task now is to also find ways to use UCL’s world-leading expertise in these areas to help us minimise our biodiversity footprint, both in the UK and worldwide. 

What makes you most proud of your work so far?

I’m very proud of the research and teaching that CBER and GEE do - also that I still get to spend much of my time thinking about nature, and trying to find out why life is the way that it is - from the perspective of evolution by natural selection, and through the shared ancestry of life  – Darwin’s two profoundly transformative and simple ideas. I’m also very proud of the many students that I’ve worked with over the past 30 years, many of whom I hope have been empowered and humbled by evolutionary theory, and by the incredible diversity of life on Earth.

What are you most excited about in 2026, UCL's bicentennial year?

The bicentennial year has given us an amazing chance to think about the reasons UCL was set up, and our commitment to use curious and revolutionary thinking to shape better societies, and to connect with and learn from our communities. This central question – why and how does intellectual discourse matter for society, and the defence of nuance and of rationality against populism - is more important now than ever. I’ve also got to learn about the amazing people who’ve made UCL what it is. And to plan for what we’d like to achieve in the next 200 years.

I’m also very happy to have helped organise joint celebrations of our relationship with the Zoological Society of London, which was also established in 1826, with similarly transformative aims, and a similar history of celebrating and exploring nature, and of the value of science for society. I’m looking forward to seeing how this relationship evolves and strengthens in the years to come.

What’s a small habit or ritual that helps you stay grounded at work? 

When I feel overwhelmed or worn out, I wander over to the British Museum and choose a room to explore for an hour or so. There are so many human stories waiting to be uncovered in the objects there, to remind me of my very small place in the processions of history.

Who would be your dream dinner guests?

I think evolutionary biologists make fantastic dinner companions. Everything is open to question, and conversations that start with an innocent “I wonder why we don’t see this or that in nature?”, can leave your whole view of life transformed in a matter of minutes.

This aside, Georgina Mace and Dorothy Parker (who I think would share a wickedly dry sense of humour), John Coltrane, Samuel Beckett, Dylan Thomas, Elizabeth Garrett, John Maynard Smith, Jonathan Swift, Chris Morris and Cornelia Parker would be a good start. And William Blake – given the ideas and passions that shine through his work, I’d love to find out what a conversation with him would be like. 

What is your favourite book, film, and music album?

Book: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Film: Bruce Robinson’s Withnail and I
Album: Highway 61 Revisited by Bob Dylan

What advice would you give your younger self?  

Talk less, listen more.

What’s one thing most people don’t know about your life outside of work?

For most of my life I’ve been more interested in art history than natural history (although this is changing now).

Where do you go (physically or mentally) when you need to recharge? What's your favourite place?

My research takes me to Sicily a lot, and the long lunches on the slopes of Mount Etna that this work demands are very recharging – as are long lunches more generally. I also love waking up somewhere very remote two days into a four-day walk. That said, a stroll on Hampstead Heath helps a lot too (and increasingly needs to, given the responsibilities of parenthood).

Gliding over coral reefs, being approached by hugely unimpressed tropical fish is also an astonishingly invigorating experience. And I love the atmosphere on a boat immediately after a dive, everyone so exhilarated by the biodiversity they’ve seen. If only we could carry such feelings more easily into our everyday lives. I very much hope our (three-year-old) daughter is still able to see such healthy tropical reefs during her lifetime.

What's a joke that you enjoy, that you're happy to share?

This may be a true story, or a joke, I’m not sure: Muhammad Ali is on a plane and the stewardess asks him to fasten his seatbelt. “Superman don’t need no seatbelt” he says. “Superman don’t need no plane” comes the reply.