Biosciences

Office hours

Academia provides amazing freedom to choose unconventional hours, work anywhere in the world, and communicate with collaborators across the globe. So if I am not in my office, please feel free to send me an email (S.Simpson@exeter.ac.uk) to arrange a meeting or Skype (sdsimpson).

Professor Steve Simpson

Honorary Appointment

University of Exeter
Biosciences
Geoffrey Pope, Stocker Road
Exeter EX4 4QD

About me:

I am a marine biologist and fish ecologist, with particular interests in the behaviour of coral reef fishes, bioacoustics, effects of climate change on marine ecosystems, fisheries, conservation and management. I lead a dynamic research group of ~10 postdocs, PhD and Masters students. Following a NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellowship I have ongoing links with industry and policy on the themes of European Fisheries and Climate Change, and Anthropogenic Noise and Marine Ecosystems. I work closely with Cefas and the Met Office, am an active member of the IQOE Science Committee, and have been an Academic Advisor and featured scientist in Blue Planet 2.

My work combines fieldwork, often through expeditions to remote and challenging environments around the world, with laboratory-based behaviour experiments, data-mining, and computer modelling.

My research focuses on:

  • The impact of anthropogenic noise on marine ecosystems
  • The effects of climate change on fish and fisheries
  • Sensory and orientation behaviour of marine organisms
  • Dispersal, connectivity and biogeography
  • Coral reef restoration
  • Fisheries and Conservation Management

 

My recent TEDx 2019 Talk: Changing the Soundtrack of the Ocean

BBC Earth film on my underwater acoustics work

Click here to watch my Facebook Live Q&A session

 

Publications and Research Profiles

 

Currrent opportunities for postgraduate study

  • I welcome discussions with potential Masters by Research students interested in undertaking a 12–24 month research project associated with current funded research programmes.

 

Short films on my research and knowledge exchange activities

 

Impact Case Studies from my Research

 

Recent activites linking Research with Impact

-> Impacts of Marine Noise

-> Fisheries and Climate Change

 

Research Findings and News Stories

 

Interests:

Background

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 was Co-Investigator on a major Defra-funded project with Prof Andy Radford (Bristol). I also held a NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellow (2011–2014) which enabled 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, where I now have a thriving research group working on effects of climate change on European fisheries, and impacts of anthropogenic noise on marine ecosystems.

 

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:

2019–present Professor of Marine Biology & Global Change, University of Exeter
2016–2019 Associate Professor in Marine Biology & Global Change, University of Exeter
2012–2016 Senior Lecturer in Marine Biology & Global Change, University of Exeter
2011–2014 NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellow
2011 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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