Head of People Conservation Science, RSPB Centre for Conservation Science

Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge

Richard leads a small team of researchers within the RSPB Centre for Conservation Science. He comes from an ornithological and ecological research background, but the focus of the team is to grow the RSPB's currently limited amount of research work on the human aspects of conservation. A core objective is understanding how to promote pro-environmental behavioural change, facilitated by furthering understanding of nature's contributions to people, people's perceptions of, attitudes to, and connection to nature, and behavioural insights.

Richard collaborates with a wide inter-disciplinary network of researchers, conservation practitioners and policy advisors, to use a range of scientific methods and approaches to tackle conservation issues. He is experienced in building and leading teams, mentoring staff and training PhD and Masters students.

After eleven years as an undergraduate, PhD student and then postdoctoral researcher in Oxford, Richard left to join the RSPB’s science team. He has been there since, becoming Head of Environmental Research in 2007 and Head of People Conservation Science in 2019. In 2015 he became an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Zoology at Cambridge.