Profile | Ecology and Conservation | University of Exeter

For students

For staff

Popular links

New and returning students

Wellbeing, Inclusion and Culture

Quick links

Study
Study
Undergraduate
Masters
PhD
Teacher training
Degree Apprenticeships
Research

Our world-leading research

Our research is changing the world - making it greener, healthier and fairer.

PhDs and research degrees

We are committed to nurturing talent and encouraging new ideas, making Exeter a great place to pursue Postgraduate Research.

Exeter Innovation

Exeter Innovation is a partner for transformative innovation. We harness the world leading research and education of the University of Exeter to create real and lasting impact, by working with organisations of all types and sizes on their innovation journey.
For business
Global
Global Exeter
The University of British Columbia

Activities between the University of British Columbia and Exeter include a joint research symposium focused on Community, Culture, Creativity, and Wellbeing held at Exeter in May 2018 and a faculty-led, co-funded initiatives in Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Climate Change and Digital Humanities.

IIT Delhi

Exeter and IIT Delhi combine expertise to work on issues of major importance to the UK and India; this includes enhancing sport capacity, working towards a greener future via clean energy and environment projects, and developing operations research.

Tsinghua University

The University of Exeter and Tsinghua University have launched a jointly-awarded PhD degree programme in climate and environmental sciences which supports six students to be co-supervised between Tsinghua's Department of Earth System Science and Colleges at Exeter that conduct research on earth systems and environmental sciences. Read more.

Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)

Our strategic partnership with the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has established the Environmental Sustainability and Resilience (ENSURE) Joint Centre, supporting impactful research collaborations that address key SDGs and global climate challenges.

Paris Saclay

Exeter & Paris-Saclay collaboratively deliver a series of double PhD degree projects. The universities offer joint funding to provide tuition, living, travel and research costs, and the opportunity to obtain two PhD awards from both Exeter and Paris-Saclay.

University of Geneva

To celebrate, and further extend, the strong relationship of staff within the University of Exeter and the University of Geneva, the two universities have launched a new seed fund to support developing research links.

University of Queensland

The University of Exeter and The University of Queensland have partnered to establish the QUEX Institute, a new multi-million pound partnership designed to bolster their joint global research impact. Read more.

Duke University

The University of Exeter has extended its partnership with Duke University through a new collaborative agreement to work together to tackle some of the most pressing global challenges. These are Investing in Health; Sustainability and the Environment; Public Policy and Global Security; Digital Worlds – Approaches to Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Computational Social Sciences.

The University of British Columbia

IIT Delhi

Tsinghua University

Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)

Paris Saclay

University of Geneva

University of Queensland

Duke University
Our departments
About us
About the University
Contact us
Business and partnerships
Campuses and visitors
University of Exeter, Cornwall
- Discover the University of Exeter, Cornwall: world-class education in a unique coastal setting.
News
- View all news
- View all events

Ecology and Conservation

Edit your profile

I am a currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow working between the Astrophysics Group and the Environment and Sustainability Institute at the University of Exeter. I am trained as an astrophysicist and received my PhD from the University of Exeter in 2020. My PhD research project, under the supervision of Prof. Tim Naylor, involved studying the evolution of low-mass, M-dwarf stars; both in young stellar clusters and on the main-sequence. Through this work I developed a new technique for measuring the radii of M-dwarf stars. My first lead-author paper (Morrell & Naylor 2019) presented the largest, most precise catalogue of measurements of M-dwarf effective temperatures and radii on offer. My more recent work entails generalising this method to higher mass, Solar type, potentially exoplanet-hosting stars. My other astrophysical research interests include understanding the violent, turbulent environments in the protoplanetary discs around Young Stellar Objects (YSOs) and better understanding the characteristics of interstellar extinction.

Read my thesis here: http://hdl.handle.net/10871/120487

Current Research

In my current position, I am using my expertise in astrophysical methods and computational physics to help manage the NERC-funded project Artificial light as a driver of nighttime landscape ecology, working with Prof. Kevin Gaston, Dr Jenny Hatchell and Dr Jon Bennie. In this project, we are unifying novel light measurement techniques with state-of-the-art computational models to characterise and predict the spatio-temporal characteristics of artificial light at night. Our objective is then to use these models to enhance our understanding of how artificial light affects both humans and animals.

Key Publications:

Qualifications:

MPhys Physics with Astrophysics - University of Exeter, 2015
PhD Physics (Astrophysics) - University of Exeter, 2020

View full profile