I use a combination of behavioural, physiological and field-based techniques to study the sensory and cognitive mechanisms that underpin the foraging decisions of insect pollinators. While the factors driving nectar foraging in bees are relatively well understood, the question of if or how bees evaluate pollen rewards has received much less attention. Collaborating with colleagues in Sussex Neuroscience, I use a combination of electrophysiology and behavioural trials to test how bees perceive and evaluate pollen rewards, and field trials to examine the implications for plant-insect interactions and the delivery of pollination.

I am also interested in the implications of bees foraging decisions for larval nutrition and development, as well as the impact of environmental stressors, such as pesticides and disease, on bee behaviour and physiology.

I am a member of the Sussex Sustainability Research Programme, and in collaboration with colleagues in Geography, SPRU and Law, and researchers at the University of Calcutta, India, have been using a citizen science approach to understand the potential of small scale farming in urban and peri-urban areas to contribute to global food security, and the dependency of these systems on insect pollination, using Brighton, UK and Kolkata, India as case studies.