About
My main interests are in the functions, mechanisms and evolution of scent communication in mammals, animal welfare (particularly in relation to laboratory animals), rodent pest control, and the interactions between behaviour and disease.
Brief CV: After obtaining my PhD at the University of Birmingham, studying the behaviour and ecology and commensal house mice (1984), I moved to the University of Nottingham for a one-year postdoc on shrew foraging followed by a series of three Research Fellowships on various aspects of scent communication and rodent behaviour (SERC / BBSRC, 1985-1998). I was appointed to the William Prescott Chair of Animal Science in the Veterinary Faculty at the University of Liverpool in 1998. I joined IIB when the Institute formed in 2008, while also remaining associated with the Institute of Veterinary Science. We are based at the Leahurst Campus where we have established some fantastic facilities for studying wild rodent behaviour.
Prizes or Honours
- ASAB Medal (Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, 2017)
- NC3Rs prize (GlaxoSmithKline / NC3Rs, 2010)
- Elected President (ASAB, 2010)