Joe is an ecologist with over 15 years of experience in industry and academia. His fascination with the natural world and freshwater ecosystems led to a PhD at the Natural History Museum in London, quantifying and modelling food web responses to river habitat restoration in the UK. On moving to Colombia for his post-doctorate, he realised that the conventional quantitative survey-based methods used for freshwater assessments- using nets, observation or capture and then taxonomic identification to species level- were almost impossible in the country’s megadiverse and inaccessible freshwater ecosystems. Joe then started to explore molecular applications for biodiversity assessment using environmental DNA (eDNA) which can be easily collected by filtering water from the environment.
Joe moved out of academia to join NatureMetrics in 2022, the largest commercial provider of eDNA services in the world. Here he uses his ecological and molecular background to develop solutions to support multiple sectors in their efforts to detect, measure and track biodiversity efficiently and effectively. This ranges from tracking the recovery of the soil microbiome for land reclamation and reforestation to environmental impact assessments in the marine environment, more recently Joe is increasingly assisting organisations as they prepare for the incoming TNFD and commence their nature positive journey.
