Dr Steve Simpson
Senior Lecturer in Marine Biology and Global Change

Profile

My first degree was in Marine Biology at the University of Liverpool (BSc Hons, 1998), during which I worked in Mozambique assessing the Quirimba Archipelago for Marine Protected Area status. Inspired by my time in the tropics, I followed this with a Masters degree at the University of York in Marine & Coastal Ecology & Environmental Management (MRes, 1999) where, under the guidance of Profs Rupert Ormond and Callum Roberts, I completed an Internship in the British Virgin Islands designing fisheries management tools for the developing world. I then spent a year working with the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) in Western Australia, Raleigh International in Belize and with a UK environmental consultancy (CMACS). I completed my PhD (2000-2004) at the University of York supervised by Dr Calvin Dytham and Dr Mark Meekan (AIMS), focusing on the influence of behaviour of larval coral reef fish on dispersal and implications for population connectivity. I continued this line of study, combining field studies, electrophysiology, choice experiments and individual-based modelling, with a NERC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship which I held at the University of Edinburgh (2004-2008, working with Prof Victoria Braithwaite). I moved to Bristol in 2008 to work with Dr Martin Genner on the effects of climate change on European fish communities and implications for effective fisheries and conservation management under the NERC Sustainable Marine Bioresources theme. In parallel I developed some strong collaborations to study impacts of marine anthropogenic noise (shipping, pile-driving, drilling, etc.), and am Co-Investigator on a major Defra-funded project with Dr Andy Radford (Bristol). I am also a NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellow (2011-2014) which enables me to develop strong links between the research community and industry and policy on the themes of European Fisheries and Climate Change, and Anthropogenic Noise and Marine Ecosystems. I joined the University of Exeter as a Senior Lecturer in Marine Biology and Global Change in Sept 2012.

Qualifications

2000-2004 PhD, University of York, UK
1998-1999 MRes Marine & Coastal Ecology & Environmental Management, University of York, UK
1995-1998 BSc Marine Biology, University of Liverpool, UK

Career

2012-present Senior Lecturer, University of Exeter
2011-2014 NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellow
2011-2013 Postdoctoral Researcher, Defra-funded Anthropogenic Noise project, University of Bristol, UK
2008-2011 Postdoctoral Researcher, NERC Sustainable Marine Bioresources Initiative, University of Bristol, UK
2007-2008 Royal Society International Fellow and EPHE Postdoctoral Fellow, Université de Perpignan
2004-2007 NERC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh, UK

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