My main research interest is in the evolution of pheromones (molecules used for chemical communication) and animal behaviour. The second edition of my book Pheromones and Animal Behavior, published by Cambridge University Press, won the Best Postgraduate Textbook Award of the Royal Society of Biology 2014.
The aim of the book is to provide a synthesis of the subject, bridging the divides between chemists and biologists, between those studying vertebrates and invertebrates, between ecologists, molecular biologists and neurobiologists, and most importantly, giving the whole an evolutionary context.
My TEDx talk on the Smelly Mystery of Human Pheromones has been viewed 1.4 million times (transcripts in 26 languages). There's a March 2015 blog by me about how a corporation created a human pheromones myth at the Guardian Science blog.
My most recent book Animal Behaviour: a Very Short Introduction (2017) is published by OUP.
I was formerly the Director of Online Learning and University Lecturer (≡ Associate Professor) in Biological Sciences in the University of Oxford Department for Continuing Education. Between 2000 and 2005 I was the University's Director of Distance and Online Learning.
