City Clocks Group
Pablo Capilla-Lasheras
Kate Griffiths
Research technician
Kate has been a research technician with IBAHCM for more than 20 years. After spending most of her time assisting in laboratory work and captive animal experiments, she was thrilled to participate in field work activities with our group. And turns out she excels in her duties and has been taking up more and more responsibilities to set-up and manage the Glasgow urban gradient. She is also a bird ringer, which makes her contribution to our field season even more invaluable!
Claire Branston
I am primarily interested in how species respond to changes in their environment. I recently completed a PhD on blue tits and their prey (at Durham University, Newcastle University and the British Trust for Ornithology), looking at phenological changes to all three levels of the tree-caterpillar-blue tit food chain due to climate change, and whether any changes were consistent across different habitats. I have experience working in both the field and the lab, and on projects in the UK and abroad. I have recently joined the team and in my current role I’m mostly field based, working on the urban-rural nest box gradient and maintaining a network of telemetry receivers. I currently hold a ‘C’ bird ringing permit and I am an active ringer both at work and during my spare time.
Yacob Haddou
Research technician
I am a Research Technician working on defining the relationship between avian biodiversity and urbanisation. My current project consists in modelling how the temporal change in the extent of urban land cover affects species diversity and I am trying to achieve this by quantifying the presence of urban legacy effects in bird communities inhabiting urbanising landscapes.
I am originally from Italy, but I moved to the UK to complete a BSc in International Wildlife Biology at the University of South Wales. During my undergraduate research project, I fell in love with modelling and statistics and I therefore decided to become a quantitative ecologist which brought me to graduate from the MSc course in Quantitative Methods in Biodiversity, Conservation and Epidemiology at the University of Glasgow.
Eleni Christoforou
PhD student
I am a PhD student investigating the potential impact of light pollution and microfibers on the ecosystem services provided by marine bivalves. My experimental work uses blue mussels collected from selected areas of the Scottish coastline.
I am originally from Cyprus where I attended The English School in Nicosia. In 2017, I graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz, USA with a BSc in Marine Biology and BA in Art. The passion I have for both subjects is seen through my science illustration and natural science work as well as through my involvement in science communication. Examples of my art can be seen on my personal website elenichri.com and at the IBAHCM blog/podcast series Naturally Speaking at naturallyspeaking.blog.
Matthew Cameron
Honours student
I'm an undergraduate zoologist in the first year of honours at Glasgow university. I grew up in the French countryside and have been a bird enthusiast since the get go. This interest broadened and has driven me to studying zoology. My key interests are the interactions and dynamics of wildlife, humans and the environment. I am new to the city clocks project and very excited to be a part of it. I hope to gain a deeper knowledge of urban ecology and to produce an honours project to be proud of, that will offer deeper insight into the effects of an urban environment on blue tits in Glasgow.
Thomas MacGillavry
Honours student
I’m currently in my third year studying Zoology at the University of Glasgow. Although I’m originally from Belgium, I’ve lived in Germany for nine years before moving to Scotland. My main interest in science is evolutionary biology, particularly aesthetic evolution and mate choice. I joined the City Clocks group last summer to gain some experience working with birds in the field. In the next academic year, I will be working hard on my MSci at the Max Planck Institute of Ornithology in Seewiesen. During my placement I will study how the copy number and expression of the amylase gene, as well as other digestive enzymes, has evolved in birds.
Wildlife photography is one of my favourite hobbies, which mixes wonderfully with field work. I also compete in powerlifting and play the drums.