Liam Crowley

Entomologist

I am interested in insects and I study their diversity, ecology and evolution. I have always loved animals, and seeing as potentially 90% of all animal species are insects, it made sense for me to specialise in entomology! During my undergraduate biology degree at the University of Bath, I spent 12 months working at the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust in the Farmland Ecology unit. This focussed on Entomology within the agricultural environment, including measuring the ecosystem services provided by insects such as pollination and pest control. After this I completed a masters degree in Entomology at Harper Adams university, where for my dissertation I looked at how effective agri-environment schemes were at supporting solitary bees. I undertook my PhD at the University of Birmingham, where I studied the impact of climate change on insects. Specifically, I looked at the impact of elevated carbon dioxide on woodland insects and how the consequences of this in turn feeds back and affects the whole ecosystem. I am currently a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Biology. I work on the exciting Darwin Tree of life project, where we are ambitiously aiming to sequence the complete genome of every single species of animal, plant and fungi in Britain and Ireland! My role centres around finding and identifying as many species as possible, before preparing then for DNA extraction.

Alongside my research, I am also enthusiastic about communicating the exciting world of science (entomology in particular!) with as many people as possible. I work with a wide range of people from amateur groups to school children, doing a wide range of activities including bug hunts, exhibitions, talks, podcasts, games, videos and many more!

Can Gene Research Change the World | Wytham Woods: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqjb9Wt67LY&ab_channel=UniversityofOxford