I am Dr Joe W Bull: an ecologist and conservation scientist, with a background in physics and engineering.

How does nature work? How can we conserve nature? And how can I see as much of it as possible? These are the big questions that ultimately motivate much of what I and my collaborators do. We tackle them through a combination of scientific research and practical engagement with industry.

This site exists to bring together information on the science being carried out by my research group, based at the University of Oxford, and the associated consultancy projects we undertake at Wild Business Ltd.

I hope you enjoy exploring it. Better yet, find me on Twitter and drop me a line.

Personal bio

I am an ecologist, conservation scientist and practitioner: currently Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Oxford, and co-founder of Wild Business Ltd.

I have a BSc in Physics, an MSc in Environmental Technology, and a PhD in Conservation Biology from Imperial College London. During my PhD I worked closely with the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment (UK), the Academy of Sciences (Uzbekistan) and RMIT (Australia); afterwards, I completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), and then a Lectureship with the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology.

Additional personal highlights of my work to date include desert expeditions to the former Aral Sea (Uzbekistan), tropical field ecology expeditions (to Peru, and Malaysia), and leading a team for Engineers without Borders (Nepal).

In both my research activities and consultancy practice, I employ field ecology, coding (particularly agent-based simulation models), remote sensing (including analysis of satellite imagery), integration and statistical analysis of large secondary datasets, counterfactual impact evaluation, and analyses of large-scale environmental change.

Connecting all of the above is an interest in finding practical yet technically robust approaches towards better understanding and conserving nature.