Prof Rob Fletcher
- Miriam Rothschild Chair of Conservation Biology
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About
I am leader of the Fletcher Lab and co-leader, with Prof Andrew Balmford and Prof William Sutherland of the Conservation Science Group.
I grew up in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee (USA) and earned a B.A. from the University of Colorado in 1996 and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with a Minor in Statistics from Iowa State University in 2003.
My research interests include landscape ecology, conservation biology, ornithology and quantitative science. I have long-term field research in the Everglades (USA) and in southern Africa, where my team blends applied field ecology with quantitative modeling to address the biodiversity crisis. I have published over 145 scientific articles and am the lead author of the book, Spatial Ecology and Conservation Modeling (2018, Springer). While based at the University of Florida (2007-2024), I received over $12M USD in funding from a wide range of sponsors, including the National Science Foundation, the US Department of Agriculture, and the US Army Corps of Engineers.
In 2024, I was the recipient of the Distinguished Landscape Ecologist Award from the International Association of Landscape Ecology. I am a committed teacher and mentor, having mentored over 40 graduate students and postdocs. I moved to Cambridge in 2024 to accept a position as the Miriam Rothschild Professor of Conservation Biology. I am part of the Conservation Science Group in the Conservation Research Institute.
Research
Nearly all aspects of conservation play out in space. Area-based conservation planning, climate change mitigation, strategies to halt the spread of invasive species, restoration and rewilding, and land management all occur across landscapes. It is now well known that explicitly accounting for space in ecology and conservation, or spatial ecology and conservation, is necessary for reliable answers to pressing ecological questions and for providing effective conservation solutions (Fletcher and Fortin 2018). Spatial ecology and conservation has rapidly advanced in recent decades. With innovations in data collection across both broad and fine scales, ‘big data’ are now widely available that are spatially explicit. At the same time, the growth in models, theory, and novel ways to apply spatial data to conservation has been substantial. As the ongoing biodiversity crisis is driven by rapid environmental change that plays out in space and time, these advancements have made, and continue to make, essential contributions to our understanding of biodiversity and its conservation across the planet. The overarching goal of my research program is to improve biodiversity science and conservation by advancing concepts, theory, and quantitative tools in landscape and spatial ecology and applying them to conservation problems to combat the biodiversity crisis.
Our group is part of the Conservation Science Group in the Department of Zoology. We are a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary group, where we work closely with practitioners, engineers, computer scientists, economists, and social scientists to gain more reliable knowledge for conservation. We strive to be inclusive and promote both equity and diversity in our approach to science, training, and conservation.
Please see below for key publications. NB '*' next to an author's name denotes student and postdoc members of the group.