About me

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Liverpool, United Kingdom
I am interested in how we can use DNA sequences to understand biodiversity – how do we recognise species, and how are species related at taxonomic, ecological and geographic levels? My passion for biodiversity research has led me from the world’s largest natural history collection - Natural History Museum, London, where I completed my MSc, to the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario - global centre for the international Barcode of Life, as a PhD student, and to the hyper-diverse tropics of Southeast Asia. The tropics will be the first regions to experience historically unprecedented climates and this will happen within the next decade. Consequently my recent research has focussed on understanding the effects of urbanisation and climate change on tropical and subtropical biodiversity - encompassing both species richness and ecological integrity across a diversity of taxonomic groups.

Nov 29, 2016

RESEARCH UPDATES NOVEMBER 2016

Genome Special Issues

A photograph representing one of our contributions was selected as the cover of the second DNA barcoding special issue (November 2016) in the journal Genome.



For a short popular summary of the cover article see http://www.seeker.com/do-blowflies-top-camera-traps-for-mammal-tracking-1851896242.html

In total we had four articles spanning the two DNA barcoding special issues in Genome, and the virtual collection.

(1)    Field calibration of blowfly-derived DNA against traditional methods for assessing mammal diversity in tropical forests
(2)    Diversity and human perceptions of bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) in Southeast Asian megacities
(3)    DNA barcodes and citizen science provoke a diversity reappraisal for the “ring” butterflies of Peninsular Malaysia (Ypthima: Satyrinae: Nymphalidae: Lepidoptera)
(4)    Can butterflies cope with city life? Butterfly diversity in a young megacity in southern China

I was also involved as a Guest Associate Editor for the special issues, and as a coauthor of the introduction article, which according to ResearchGate was the most read article from my institution last week.

From Barcodes to Biomes: Special Issues from the 6th International Barcode of Life Conference

Lab Reunion

My former PhD student and current PhD student from the University of Malaya were in Beijing this November to attend the SCCS-Beijing Conservation science in a changing world workshop at Peking University.




Intern Student Project Published

The end of the month has ended with good news. The paper written by Princess Angelie Casas, an intern in my lab at the University of Malaya in early/mid 2016 from Philippines, has been accepted for publication in Mitochondrial DNA part A. When the production is complete, it should be available here:


DNA barcodes for dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata) of Mindanao, Philippines