I am a marine biologist with a long held interest in everything related to natural history. This interest developed at an early age, while I was growing up in the north of England, and led to me studying for a BSc (Honours) degree in Zoology with Marine Zoology at the University of Wales, Bangor. I then remained in Bangor to study for a PhD in Marine Biology, when I first became interested in symbiosis. In particular, I focused on the cell biology and physiology of sea anemone-algal symbioses around the British coast, and to this day I retain a strong interest in these temperate symbioses and how they compare to their tropical counterparts. Upon completion of my PhD in 1994, I held two postdoctoral fellowshaips, firstly in the lab of Prof. Clay Cook at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Florida, and secondly in the lab of Dr. Rosalind Hinde at the University of Sydney. During this time my work became much more tropical in nature, and included fieldwork on the Florida Keys and the Great Barrier Reef (where I worked on an unusual sponge-macroalgal symbiosis). I then returned to the UK in 1999 to take up a lectureship at the University of Plymouth, which is where I first began to work on coral viruses and coral disease, alongside my old friend and virologist Dr. Willie Wilson.

Nutritional interactions between hosts and their symbionts, and how these interactions are regulated Host-symbiont recognition and the specificity of symbiotic relationships The comparative biology of temperate versus tropical symbioses   Coral bleaching and disease – particularly the potential role of viral pathogens in reef health.