Professor Kevin Gaston

NERC Council member

Professor Kevin J. Gaston is a member of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Council.

Kevin is an ecologist and conservation biologist who has worked extensively on global patterns in biodiversity, their determinants and consequences, and the two-way relations between nature and people.

Present areas of interest are focused on:

  • common ecology and the consequences of reducing the abundances and distributions of common species
  • nighttime ecology and the impacts of anthropogenic activities on the nighttime, particularly through the effects of artificial light (from streetlights and other sources)
  • personalised ecology (the set of direct sensory interactions that each of us has with nature) and its implications for people and for nature

Kevin’s research has been highly interdisciplinary, including collaborations with:

  • architects
  • economists
  • engineers
  • geographers
  • mathematicians
  • social scientists

Kevin is Professor of Biodiversity and Conservation at the Environment and Sustainability Institute (ESI) on the Penryn campus of the University of Exeter. He first moved there in 2011 as founding director of the ESI, a post he held until 2017.

Kevin’s contributions have been recognised with a number of awards, including his election to the Academia Europaea, the British Ecological Society Marsh Award in Ecology and the International Ecology Institute Excellence in Ecology Prize.

Last updated: 2 April 2024

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