Pangolins in West Africa hunted for food rather than for illicit scales trade
Research finds that appetite for bushmeat – rather than the black market for scales to use in traditional Chinese medicine – may be driving West Africa’s illegal hunting of one of the world’s most threatened mammals.
Pangolins in West Africa hunted for food rather than for illicit scales trade
Research finds that appetite for bushmeat – rather than the black market for scales to use in traditional Chinese medicine – may be driving West Africa’s illegal hunting of one of the world’s most threatened mammals.
Research Assistant - Environmental impacts of food consumption and policy
About Us:
The role is based in the Conservation Science Group in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge. There, led by Professor Andrew Balmford, research is underway centred around the impact of food on the natural environment: how can we feed a growing human population at the least cost to people and nature? This is a broad question and so the research covers a wide range of topics, including species population modelling, the biodiversity and greenhouse gas impacts of meals served in a hospital, through to the effect of package size on purchasing habits and food waste. We are looking for a motivated individual to work on a number of these topics. If you have experience in coding, strong critical thinking skills, and a passion for preserving the planet, we would love to hear from you.
The role:
As a Research Assistant, you will join the Conservation Science Group and the Mandala project (www.mandala-consortium.org) to work primarily on methods for assessing the sustainability of food and applying them to real-world data. Working closely with the team behind 'LIFE' - a state-of-the-art biodiversity assessment method, and with access to an exciting novel dataset on the food purchasing habits of 2000 households in the UK, this work has the potential for substantial impact in policy and the scientific literature. Work will include helping to develop a pipeline to estimate the impacts of individual food products and applying them to food purchasing data to explore the demographic drivers of consumption impacts. Work may also include contributing to a global standard of food impact assessments. Potential aspects of this role are broad, but might include a review of existing approaches to assessing the impacts of agricultural products, data manipulation - bringing together several data sources, developing code to automate procedures, carrying out statistical analyses and presenting results in various formats.
Required Skills and Qualifications:
- Relevant degree (Bachelors or Masters) in a quantitative / analytical subject.
- Experience in computer programming, particularly in the context of data manipulation and analysis using a language such as Python.
- Experience in working with large datasets programmatically.
- Statistical analysis and scientific writing skills.
- Organisational and time management skills.
- Ability to communicate research findings clearly in oral and written formats to collaborators and other members of the group
Desirable skills and knowledge - Experience working in a professional environment. - An understanding of the principles of reproducible scientific methods (e.g. version control, open access data and code).
For informal enquires, please contact Dr Thomas Ball at tsb42@cam.ac.uk.
Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available up until 21 March 2026 2026 with a possibility of extension.
Applications are welcome from internal candidates who would like to apply for the role on the basis of a secondment from their current role in the University.
Flexible working requests will be considered.
We particularly welcome applications from women and candidates from a BME background for this vacancy as they are currently under-represented at this level in our University.
Click the 'Apply' button below to register an account with our recruitment system (if you have not already) and apply online.
If you have any queries regarding the application process please contact Anastasia Nezhentseva.
Email: an286@cam.ac.uk Telephone: (0)1223 330117
Please quote reference PF46284 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.
The University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion and encourages applications from all sections of society.
The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.
Research Assistant - Environmental impacts of food consumption and policy
About Us:
The role is based in the Conservation Science Group in the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge. There, led by Professor Andrew Balmford, research is underway centred around the impact of food on the natural environment: how can we feed a growing human population at the least cost to people and nature? This is a broad question and so the research covers a wide range of topics, including species population modelling, the biodiversity and greenhouse gas impacts of meals served in a hospital, through to the effect of package size on purchasing habits and food waste. We are looking for a motivated individual to work on a number of these topics. If you have experience in coding, strong critical thinking skills, and a passion for preserving the planet, we would love to hear from you.
The role:
As a Research Assistant, you will join the Conservation Science Group and the Mandala project (www.mandala-consortium.org) to work primarily on methods for assessing the sustainability of food and applying them to real-world data. Working closely with the team behind 'LIFE' - a state-of-the-art biodiversity assessment method, and with access to an exciting novel dataset on the food purchasing habits of 2000 households in the UK, this work has the potential for substantial impact in policy and the scientific literature. Work will include helping to develop a pipeline to estimate the impacts of individual food products and applying them to food purchasing data to explore the demographic drivers of consumption impacts. Work may also include contributing to a global standard of food impact assessments. Potential aspects of this role are broad, but might include a review of existing approaches to assessing the impacts of agricultural products, data manipulation - bringing together several data sources, developing code to automate procedures, carrying out statistical analyses and presenting results in various formats.
Required Skills and Qualifications:
- Relevant degree (Bachelors or Masters) in a quantitative / analytical subject.
- Experience in computer programming, particularly in the context of data manipulation and analysis using a language such as Python.
- Experience in working with large datasets programmatically.
- Statistical analysis and scientific writing skills.
- Organisational and time management skills.
- Ability to communicate research findings clearly in oral and written formats to collaborators and other members of the group
Desirable skills and knowledge - Experience working in a professional environment. - An understanding of the principles of reproducible scientific methods (e.g. version control, open access data and code).
For informal enquires, please contact Dr Thomas Ball at tsb42@cam.ac.uk.
Fixed-term: The funds for this post are available up until 21 March 2026 2026 with a possibility of extension.
Applications are welcome from internal candidates who would like to apply for the role on the basis of a secondment from their current role in the University.
Flexible working requests will be considered.
We particularly welcome applications from women and candidates from a BME background for this vacancy as they are currently under-represented at this level in our University.
Click the 'Apply' button below to register an account with our recruitment system (if you have not already) and apply online.
If you have any queries regarding the application process please contact Anastasia Nezhentseva.
Email: an286@cam.ac.uk Telephone: (0)1223 330117
Please quote reference PF46284 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.
The University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion and encourages applications from all sections of society.
The University has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK.
UN-backed global research identifies key marine conservation areas
The findings of MegaMove a global UN-endorsed research project, were published this week in the journal Science. The project involved a team of nearly 400 international scientists from over 50 countries have tracked more than 100 marine megafauna species, to identify the most critical locations in our global oceans for...
Insect biodiversity change: putting the puzzle together
Insect biodiversity change is an important research focus for our Agroecology Group . Widespread declines in insect biodiversity have been attributed to a diverse set of anthropogenic drivers, but the relative importance of these drivers remains a puzzle. One aspect of the group's research, as part of the GLITRS project ...
New method to avoid perfect being the enemy of good in conservation
The quest for a perfect understanding of the causes of species decline can get in the way of good options for immediate action when it comes to conservation. A framework to tackle this issue is described in a new paper published in the journal Ecological Solutions and Evidence, co-authored by Prof Jeremy Wilson, Director...
Zoology Postgraduate Symposium 2025 a great success!
On Monday 14 April we welcomed members of the department to our first in-house postgraduate student symposium. The symposium is our annual opportunity to showcase and celebrate the diverse work being done by PhD and MPhil students in the department — as well as to build links between research groups and exchange ideas and...
Cambridge researchers elected as Fellows of the Royal Society 2025
“It is with great pleasure that I welcome the latest cohort of outstanding researchers into the Fellowship of the Royal Society,” said Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society. “Their achievements represent the very best of scientific endeavour, from basic discovery to research with real-world impact across health, technology and policy. From tackling global health challenges to reimagining what AI can do for humanity, their work is a testament to the power of curiosity-driven research and innovation.
“The strength of the Fellowship lies not only in individual excellence, but in the diversity of backgrounds, perspectives and experiences each new member brings. This cohort represents the truly global nature of modern science and the importance of collaboration in driving scientific breakthroughs.”
The Fellows and Foreign Members join the ranks of Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Dorothy Hodgkin.
The new Cambridge fellows are:
Professor Edward Bullmore FMedSci FRS
Professor Ed Bullmore is Professor of Psychiatry and former Head of the Department of Psychiatry. His research mainly involves the application of brain imaging to psychiatry. He has introduced an entirely original approach to the analysis of human brain anatomy, involving graph theory and its application to small-world networks. This has had an enormous impact on the field, especially in relation to understanding the biological basis of schizophrenia and depression. His work has been key to the understanding of the 'wiring' of the human brain.
Professor Gábor Csányi FRS
Professor Gábor Csányi is Professor of Molecular Modelling in the Department of Engineering, and a Fellow of Pembroke College. His work is in the field of computational chemistry, and is focused on developing algorithms to predict the properties of materials and molecules from first principles. He pioneered the application of machine learning to molecular modelling which lead to enormous gains in the efficiency of molecular dynamics simulation.
Professor Judith Driscoll FRS
Professor Judith Driscoll is Professor of Materials Science in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, and a Fellow of Trinity College. Her research is concerned with the nanoscale design and tuning of functional oxide thin film materials for energy-efficient electronic applications. A particular focus of her research group is oxide thin films, owing to their wide range of functionalities and their stability. However, their compositions tend to be complex, defects are prevalent, and interface effects play a strong role. Also, for many applications device structural dimensions are required down to nanometre length-scales. Together, all these factors produce exciting challenges for the materials scientist.
Professor Marie Edmonds FRS
Professor Marie Edmonds is Head of Department and Professor of Volcanology and Petrology in the Department of Earth Sciences. She is also a Fellow of Queens’ College. Her research focuses on understanding the impact of volcanoes on our environment and on the habitability of our planet. Her research spans the boundaries between traditional disciplines, from deciphering the nature of the interior of the Earth, to magma transport and storage in the crust, to volcano monitoring, understanding ore deposits and the dynamic chemistry of volcanic gases in the atmosphere and climate.
Professor Julian Hibberd FRS
Professor Julian Hibberd is Head of the Department of Plant Sciences and a Fellow of Emmanuel College. His research focuses on guiding optimisation of photosynthesis to improve crop yields. The C4 pathway is a complex form of photosynthesis that evolved around 30 million years ago and is now used by the most productive plants on the planet. Professor Hibberd has provided key insights into the evolution of C4 photosynthesis through analysis of plant physiology, cell specialisation, organelle development, and the control of gene expression.
Dr Gregory Jefferis FRS
Dr Gregory Jefferis is Joint Head of the Neurobiology Division at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Director of Research of the Department of Zoology. The broad goal of his research is to understand how smell turns into behaviour in the fruit fly brain. His group is particularly interested in how odour information is processed by the higher olfactory centres that mediate innate and learned behaviour.
Professor Jason Miller FRS
Professor Jason Miller is a Professor in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics and a Fellow of Trinity College. His research interests are in probability, in particular stochastic interface models, random walk, mixing times for Markov chains, and interacting particle systems.
Professor Andrew Pitts FRS
Professor Andrew Pitts is Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Computer Science in the Department of Computer Science and Technology and an Emeritus Fellow of Darwin College. His research makes use of techniques from category theory, mathematical logic and type theory to advance the foundations of programming language semantics and theorem proving systems. His aim is to develop mathematical models and methods that aid language design and the development of formal logics for specifying and reasoning about programs. He is particularly interested in higher-order typed programming languages and in dependently typed logics.
Dr Marta Zlatic FRS
Dr Marta Zlatic is Programme Leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, and Director of Research in the Department of Zoology. She is also a Fellow of Trinity College. Her research aims to understand the relationship between the structure of the nervous system and its function and to discover the basic principles by which neural circuits implement fundamental computations. A major focus of her research is the circuit implementation of learning and decision-making.
Nine outstanding Cambridge scientists have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences and the oldest science academy in continuous existence.
Tom MorrisEntrance to the Royal Society
The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.
Cambridge researchers elected as Fellows of the Royal Society 2025
“It is with great pleasure that I welcome the latest cohort of outstanding researchers into the Fellowship of the Royal Society,” said Sir Adrian Smith, President of the Royal Society. “Their achievements represent the very best of scientific endeavour, from basic discovery to research with real-world impact across health, technology and policy. From tackling global health challenges to reimagining what AI can do for humanity, their work is a testament to the power of curiosity-driven research and innovation.
“The strength of the Fellowship lies not only in individual excellence, but in the diversity of backgrounds, perspectives and experiences each new member brings. This cohort represents the truly global nature of modern science and the importance of collaboration in driving scientific breakthroughs.”
The Fellows and Foreign Members join the ranks of Stephen Hawking, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Lise Meitner, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Dorothy Hodgkin.
The new Cambridge fellows are:
Professor Edward Bullmore FMedSci FRS
Professor Ed Bullmore is Professor of Psychiatry and former Head of the Department of Psychiatry. His research mainly involves the application of brain imaging to psychiatry. He has introduced an entirely original approach to the analysis of human brain anatomy, involving graph theory and its application to small-world networks. This has had an enormous impact on the field, especially in relation to understanding the biological basis of schizophrenia and depression. His work has been key to the understanding of the 'wiring' of the human brain.
Professor Gábor Csányi FRS
Professor Gábor Csányi is Professor of Molecular Modelling in the Department of Engineering, and a Fellow of Pembroke College. His work is in the field of computational chemistry, and is focused on developing algorithms to predict the properties of materials and molecules from first principles. He pioneered the application of machine learning to molecular modelling which lead to enormous gains in the efficiency of molecular dynamics simulation.
Professor Judith Driscoll FRS
Professor Judith Driscoll is Professor of Materials Science in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, and a Fellow of Trinity College. Her research is concerned with the nanoscale design and tuning of functional oxide thin film materials for energy-efficient electronic applications. A particular focus of her research group is oxide thin films, owing to their wide range of functionalities and their stability. However, their compositions tend to be complex, defects are prevalent, and interface effects play a strong role. Also, for many applications device structural dimensions are required down to nanometre length-scales. Together, all these factors produce exciting challenges for the materials scientist.
Professor Marie Edmonds FRS
Professor Marie Edmonds is Head of Department and Professor of Volcanology and Petrology in the Department of Earth Sciences. She is also a Fellow of Queens’ College. Her research focuses on understanding the impact of volcanoes on our environment and on the habitability of our planet. Her research spans the boundaries between traditional disciplines, from deciphering the nature of the interior of the Earth, to magma transport and storage in the crust, to volcano monitoring, understanding ore deposits and the dynamic chemistry of volcanic gases in the atmosphere and climate.
Professor Julian Hibberd FRS
Professor Julian Hibberd is Head of the Department of Plant Sciences and a Fellow of Emmanuel College. His research focuses on guiding optimisation of photosynthesis to improve crop yields. The C4 pathway is a complex form of photosynthesis that evolved around 30 million years ago and is now used by the most productive plants on the planet. Professor Hibberd has provided key insights into the evolution of C4 photosynthesis through analysis of plant physiology, cell specialisation, organelle development, and the control of gene expression.
Dr Gregory Jefferis FRS
Dr Gregory Jefferis is Joint Head of the Neurobiology Division at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and Director of Research of the Department of Zoology. The broad goal of his research is to understand how smell turns into behaviour in the fruit fly brain. His group is particularly interested in how odour information is processed by the higher olfactory centres that mediate innate and learned behaviour.
Professor Jason Miller FRS
Professor Jason Miller is a Professor in the Department of Pure Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics and a Fellow of Trinity College. His research interests are in probability, in particular stochastic interface models, random walk, mixing times for Markov chains, and interacting particle systems.
Professor Andrew Pitts FRS
Professor Andrew Pitts is Emeritus Professor of Theoretical Computer Science in the Department of Computer Science and Technology and an Emeritus Fellow of Darwin College. His research makes use of techniques from category theory, mathematical logic and type theory to advance the foundations of programming language semantics and theorem proving systems. His aim is to develop mathematical models and methods that aid language design and the development of formal logics for specifying and reasoning about programs. He is particularly interested in higher-order typed programming languages and in dependently typed logics.
Dr Marta Zlatic FRS
Dr Marta Zlatic is Programme Leader at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, and Director of Research in the Department of Zoology. She is also a Fellow of Trinity College. Her research aims to understand the relationship between the structure of the nervous system and its function and to discover the basic principles by which neural circuits implement fundamental computations. A major focus of her research is the circuit implementation of learning and decision-making.
Nine outstanding Cambridge scientists have been elected as Fellows of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences and the oldest science academy in continuous existence.
Tom MorrisEntrance to the Royal Society
The text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Images, including our videos, are Copyright ©University of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified. All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – on our main website under its Terms and conditions, and on a range of channels including social media that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.
Dr Greg Jeffris, Prof Claire Spottiswoode and Dr Marta Zlatić elected Fellows of the Royal Society
Today we congratulate three members of our department, Dr Gregory Jefferis , Prof Claire Spottiswoode and Dr Marta Zlatić on being elected Fellows of the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of sciences. Fellowship of the Society is a significant honour. Fellows are elected for life, based on excellence in science...
So much evidence, so little time: Could AI speed up decision-making in conservation?
Making the right decisions to protect species and habitats is crucial, but it's tough when scientific knowledge on conservation actions is scattered across thousands of studies. Even though resources like the Conservation Evidence database , contain searchable summaries of conservation actions and their outputs, finding...
World’s first comprehensive inventory of naked clam growth rates reveals game changing aquaculture opportunity.
The first robust global dataset on naked clam biology and growth has been assembled through painstaking research by a team based here in Cambridge. The paper, ‘ Naked clams: a comprehensive analysis of their global potential for commercial aquaculture ’ published today in the journal Reviews in Aquaculture, presents a...
Mini-brains but maxi-memories: new research on wasps
A new study, co-authored by Dr William Foster and colleagues at the University of Exeter, published in the journal Current Biology, shows that while female wasps might have ‘miniature brains’ but they have excellent memories when it comes to feeding their young. The research, conducted on heathland in Surrey, shows that...
Ready, steady, replicate: New insights into DNA replication in human cells
Scientists have long searched for a clear "start here" signal for DNA replication in the human genome. Research published this week in the journal Nucleic Acids Research by Dr Torsten Krude and students here in the Department of Zoology, in collaboration with colleagues at The Francis Crick Institute , reports important...
Prof Bill Sutherland elected a member of the American Philosophical Society
Congratulations to Prof William Sutherland , Director of Research and co-leader of the Conservation Science Group who has been elected a member of the American Philosophical Society . The APS is the oldest learned society in North America, founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin to bring together creative thinkers in the...
Artificial intelligence and nature conservation; can tech save the world?
Amid the hype about AI’s potential to turbocharge human abilities, researchers here in Zoology and the Conservation Research Institute are leading conversations to make sure we advance with eyes wide open. Last year, Dr Sam Reynolds, a Research Associate in our Conservation Science Group joined 26 other conservation...
To save nature, AI needs our help
Researchers at Cambridge are leading conversations to make sure we embrace AI with eyes wide open.
To save nature, AI needs our help
Researchers at Cambridge are leading conversations to make sure we embrace AI with eyes wide open.
Professor Robert Fletcher elected a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America
We are delighted to share the news that Professor Robert Fletcher , who is co-leader of our Conservation Science Group , has been made a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America . ESA Fellows are elected for their exceptional achievements and outstanding contributions to their field. This year, the ESA Governing Board...