Rob is the Miriam Rothschild Professor of Conservation Biology at the University of Cambridge and former Professor at the Wildlife Ecology & Conservation Department at the University of Florida. His interests include landscape ecology, conservation biology, and quantitative science.
Rob grew up in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee (USA) and earned a B.A. from the University of Colorado in 1996 and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with a Minor in Statistics from Iowa State University in 2003. His research interests include landscape ecology, conservation biology, ornithology and quantitative science. He has long-term field research in the Everglades (USA) and in southern Africa, where his team blends applied field ecology with quantitative modeling to address the biodiversity crisis. Rob has published over 145 scientific articles and am the lead author of the book, Spatial Ecology and Conservation Modeling (2018, Springer). While based at the University of Florida (2007-2024), he received over $12M USD in funding from a wide range of sponsors, including the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Agriculture, and the US Army Corps of Engineers. In 2024, he was the recipient of the Distinguished Landscape Ecologist Award from the International Association of Landscape Ecology. Rob is a committed teacher and mentor, having mentored over 40 graduate students and postdocs. He moved to Cambridge in 2024 to accept a position as the Miriam Rothschild Professor of Conservation Biology. Rob is part of the Conservation Science Group in the Conservation Research Institute.