Introducing Heather Campbell

The Department of Crop and Environment Sciences has gained a new member. Dr Heather Campbell is an insect ecologist, specialising in ant biodiversity and conservation in sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to taking up the position as a Lecturer in Entomology, Heather worked for three years as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Pretoria and as an Endeavour Visiting Research Fellow at the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment in Sydney. She holds a PhD in Ecology from the University of Reading, as well as an MSc. in Taxonomy and Biodiversity from Imperial College and the Natural History Museum, London. Her first degree was in Biological Sciences from Lancaster University.

Her research employs field and collections-based approaches in entomology to answer ecological questions on biodiversity, conservation and interactions biology.

As a tropical ecologist she has carried out fieldwork in forest, savannah and desert ecosystems in Tanzania, Uganda, Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa.

Previous research projects include: measuring changing diversity patterns along elevational gradients in three South African mountain ranges; the impact of natural and anthropogenic disturbances on taxonomic and functional composition of ant assemblages in subtropical sand forest; ant-plant-moth interactions on acacia trees in the Kalahari, and; mapping the species diversity and distribution of baboon spiders in southern Africa through citizen science.