As Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Academic Planning and Resources, Professor Mark Fellowes is responsible for staff deployment, the overall course programme, and helping shape the capital investment programme in teaching and research facilities. He is a member of the University Executive Board
Katarina Bilikova
Executive Support Officer
k.bilikova@reading.ac.uk
44 (0) 118 378 5086
Mark studied Zoology at Imperial College London (1995), and moved to Imperial's Silwood Park campus to complete a PhD in Evolutionary Biology (1998), followed by a brief post-doctoral position at the NERC Centre for Population Biology. He joined the University of Reading as lecturer in Zoology (2000), before promotion to Associate Professor and then Chair in Ecology. He was Head of the School of Biological Sciences for seven years.
Mark's research initially focused on how the evolution of immune systems are constrained by life-history trade-offs, and the ecological consequences of variation in defence traits. More recently, his research has two overlapping and integrated strands. First, Mark's group work on human-wildlife interactions, asking how the choices people make have unforeseen consequences for species. Current projects include work on red kites, urban greening, cats and conservation, leopard ecology and urban butterfly population dynamics. Second, his group works on insect ecology. One major area of research focuses on how patterns of interactions between predators and prey can be altered by indirect effects. Current projects in this strand ask how the presence of mutualists affects plant-herbivore-enemy interactions in an urban context, how ubiquitous plant pathogens alter interactions at higher trophic levels and how stored project pests may be managed. The work of Mark's research group has featured widely in national and international print and broadcast media, won a silver medal at the Chelsea Flower Show, and he has published two science books aimed at the general public.