I am a post-doctoral researcher in Ben Longdon’s group at the University of Exeter.
Research Career
| 2026- | Centre for Ecology and Conservation, University of Exeter | Post Doctoral Researcher in Ben Longdon’s group on NERC PtF grant |
| 2022-2026 | NERC funded PhD Studentship with Dr Barbara Tschirren and Ben Longdon ‘Zoonotic disease in a changing world – emerging tick-borne pathogens in human-altered ecosystems’ | |
| 2017-2022 | Msci Zoology |
Research
I am interested in the ecological processes that shape pathogen communities and drive the emergence of disease in natural systems. My research spans multiple ecological scales—from organismal ecology to functional community ecology—and integrates fieldwork, molecular approaches, and statistical modelling.
My PhD focused on the mechanisms through which human-driven ecosystem change contributes to zoonotic disease emergence. In particular, I showed that the release of non-native pheasants amplifies Borrelia spp. in ticks—the bacteria responsible for Lyme disease. I also investigated how biodiversity loss influences tick abundance and Borrelia prevalence in the UK and used metagenomic sequencing to characterise 18 previously undescribed tick-borne viruses.
For my postdoctoral research, I will use more than 200 species of UK macro-moths and their associated viruses as a model system to test how host ecology, host–virus evolutionary history, and environmental conditions shape viromes (the community of viruses which live on and within organisms).
Please find my work on Google scholar
Ben Longdon 