Dr Esther Jones
Esther is the Group Lead and Principal Scientist for Offshore Renewables. She leads long-term research projects and focuses on strategic growth and income generation. Her research interests are in the spatial and movement ecology of top marine predators, and how anthropogenic activities such as renewable developments and shipping impact ecosystems. She also works on broader statistical ecology problems such as characterising and reducing uncertainty and spatio-temporal modelling.
Dr Adam Butler
Adam leads the stakeholder management and impact delivery for the Offshore Renewables Group. He leads the BioSS contribution on offshore renewables projects for a range of stakeholders and funders, including Marine Scotland, ORJIP, OWEC, Natural England, JNCC, RSPB, NatureScot and industry. Adam has a key role in the development of Environmental Impact Assessment tools, which link tools and data in a way that enables uncertainty propagation. His research interests focus on developing statistical methods motivated by applied problems in ecology and environmental science.
Dr Ken Newman
Ken is the Principal Researcher in Statistical Methodology. For offshore renewables projects, he works on the application of statistical methods for analysis of complex computer simulation models, which include sensitivity and uncertainty analyses, calibration via history matching and emulation. He is also interested in ecological statistics and modelling of animal population dynamics using state space models and Bayesian hierarchical models.
Dr Phil Bouchet
Phil joined BioSS in 2024 as a Senior Statistician specialised in Applied Spatial Statistics and is involved in multiple long-term projects aimed at understanding the potential impacts of offshore wind farm development on seabird distribution, abundance, and behaviour. Phil’s background is in quantitative marine ecology, with years of experience in conducting dedicated research on large vertebrate populations, including cetaceans, sharks, and pelagic fishes. Phil’s main interests lie in developing statistical methods and software to support impact assessments for threatened species exposed to human activities in the marine environment. His work has a strong applied focus and links theory with empirical data to improve on-the-ground management and policy decisions.
Dr Thomas Cornulier
Thomas joined BioSS in 2022 as a senior ecological and environmental statistician, bringing experience working with birds, mammals, fish and environmental data in the marine and terrestrial environments. He uses spatio-temporal statistical models, to analyse predator and prey distributions at different spatial and temporal scales. He also works on the analysis of animal behaviour using bio-logger data (including GPS and accelerometers) and develops Bayesian models to understand population ecology and dynamics, combining multiple sources of data.
Thomas provided many of the images used in the Offshore Renewables webpages.
Dr Katherine Whyte
Katherine is a senior ecological and environmental statistician and works on several short-term and long-term research projects in the Offshore Renewables Group. She joined BioSS in 2021. Katherine's research focusses on animal movement modelling, working at the interface of statistics and ecology to provide robust answers to applied questions. She is experienced in using biologging (animal tracking) data, and her main research interests are in developing models of animal movement and behaviour to better understand the effects of human disturbance. Katherine also specialises in knowledge exchange and science communication.
Dr Anastasia Frantsuzova
Anastasia has been a statistician for ecological and environmental applications at BioSS since 2021, and works in the Offshore Renewables group for a part of her time. So far, her work has focused on the potential effects of offshore renewable developments on seabirds, with a particular interest in statistical emulation and applications of expert elicitation.
Dr Ana Couto
Ana has been an Ecological Statistician at BioSS since 2022 and works on several short-term and long-term projects in the Offshore Renewables Group. Her work is mostly focused on assessing the influence of offshore wind farms on aspects of seabird ecology, such as spatial distribution and demography traits, and building links with policy. Ana is a member of the BES Scottish policy group.
Before starting at BioSS, Ana was doing her PhD part-time at the University of Aberdeen focusing on understanding the biotic (e.g. prey) and abiotic drivers (e.g. velocity and turbulence) of seabirds’ usage of tidal areas and assessing the potential ecological impacts of marine renewable energy devices. Ana's main research interests are understanding the drivers of animal behaviour, the effects of man-made structures, and working at the science-policy interface.
Dr Stephen Vickers
Stephen joined BioSS in 2025 as an Ecological Statistician working on long-term research projects to investigate the impacts of offshore wind developments on seabirds.
Stephen specialises in spatial and movement ecology with a focus on avian systems. He previously completed two postdoctoral researcher positions; at Aberdeen University he studied how parasites can drive the evolution of seasonal migration, and at the Royal Veterinary College he studied the role of wild birds in the transmission of avian influenza (HPAI) into poultry farms. Stephen completed his PhD at the University of East Anglia in 2022, where he focussed on mechanisms of distributional change in seasonal migrants.
Dr Emily Hickinbotham
Emily joined BioSS in August 2025 and will be working on several long-term projects investigating the impact of offshore wind farms on seabirds.
Emily has experience in spatial and spatio-temporal statistical models. She has previously completed a postdoctoral researcher position at the University of Stirling, utilising species distribution modelling to map edible fungi in Europe. Prior to her postdoc, Emily completed her PhD at Newcastle University on the impact of climate change on the phenology of moths and their hostplants in England and Wales. Emily’s main research interests are in developing statistical methods to examine ecological systems, with a focus on species impacts and conservation.
Rebecca Akeresola
Rebecca is a PhD student based at the University of Edinburgh. Her research develops novel hidden Markov models from a data science perspective to inform seabird conservation. Her PhD supervisors are Prof. Ruth King, Dr Victor Elvira, Dr Gail Robertson, Dr Adam Butler, and Dr Esther Jones.
Eloise Bray
Eloise is a PhD student based at the University of Sheffield. Her research is to develop realistic models of seabird foraging behaviour in the breeding season, using a continuous-time approach. Her PhD supervisors are Prof. Paul Blackwell, University of Sheffield; Dr Alison Poulston, JBA Risk Management; Dr Adam Butler, Dr Esther Jones, BioSS; and Dr Kate Searle, Dr Francis Daunt, UKCEH
Philippa Wright
Philippa is a PhD student based at the University of St Andrews. Her research investigates the relationships between offshore wind farms, marine mammals, and their prey. Her PhD supervisors are Dr Gordon Hastie (St Andrews), Dr Sophie Smout (St Andrews), and Dr Katherine Whyte (BioSS).
Louise Blackman
Louise is a PhD student based at the University of Glasgow. Her research develops spatial population dynamics models for wildlife survey data. Her PhD supervisors are Prof. Janine Illian, Dr Jafet Belmont (University of Glasgow), Dr Esther Jones and Dr Phil Bouchet (BioSS).