Dr Vicky Boult

  • Lecturer
  • PhD supervisor
  • Researcher
  • Academic Tutor
  • Admissions Tutor for Biological Sciences

Areas of interest

Vicky is an interdisciplinary scientist with expertise in both Ecology and Meteorology. She is broadly interested in how we can combine an understanding of ecological processes, meteorological forecasts and humanitarian action to  improve preparedness in biodiversity conservation. Specifically, Vicky has worked with African agricultural, humanitarian and conservation actors to co-produce early warnings of drought. She is keen to expand the use of sub-seasonal to seasonal forecasts of extreme weather in conservation planning, to ultimately improve the resilience of biodiversity to climate change.

Specific interests

  • Ecological forecasting
  • Human-wildlife interactions
  • Process-based models, their calibration, validation and application
  • African elephant behaviour, ecology, management and conservation
  • Co-production of climate services
  • Early warning of meteorological impacts
  • Knowledge exchange, capacity building and participatory research

Postgraduate supervision

  • Carleen Schwarz: Leveraging artificial intelligence for real-time early-warnings of human-elephant conflict
  • Yang Zhang: Prioritising essential socio-ecological variables for human-elephant conflict in the China-Laos transboundary landscape
  • Sarah Ashby: An examination of the dinosaur-dominated trackways of the Dinosaur Provincial Park, Canada (lead supervisor Dr Brian Pickles, University of Reading)
  • Sam Ashby: A process-based approach to understanding the compounding impacts of climate variability on the lifecycle of common toads
  • Matthew Morecroft: Developing low-carbon approaches to wildlife monitoring in Antarctica (lead supervisor Dr Claire Walluda, British Antarctic Survey)
  • Grace Emmett: Assessing the value added by AI in seasonal drought forecasting for desert elephant conservation (lead supervisor, Prof Guy Cowlishaw, Institute of Zoology)

Teaching

  • BI3ACB1: Advanced Conservation Biology (module convenor)
  • BI2CSP2: Conservation Science in Practice (module co-convenor)
  • BI2AE1: Advanced Ecology (module co-convenor)
  • BI2QP3: Quantitative and Professional Skills (lecturer)
  • BI2BCB2: Bioinformatics and Computational Biology (lecturer)
  • BIMCPS: MSc Consultancy Placement Skills (co-convenor)

Research centres and groups

National collaborations

  • TAMSAT Research Group, Department of Meteorology, University of Reading
  • National Centre for Atmospheric Science
  • Froglife
  • Natural England
  • Institute of Zoology
  • British Antarctic Survey

International collaborations

Background

Academic service

Impact, Enterprise and Outreach

  • Climate Science for Ecological Forecasting Symposium, May 2022 (funded by British Ecological Society)
  • University of Reading’s Community Festival 2023, 2026
  • University of Reading’s Children’s Christmas Lecture 2021
  • Articles for The Conversation, Whiteknights Biodiversity Blog
  • Public talks, including for Soapbox Science, Pint of Science, Wiltshire Wildlife Trust, Berkshire Mammal Group, Café Scientifique 
  • Various radio and podcast appearances

Esteem

  • NERC Knowledge Exchange Fellow: Forecast-based action for conservation
  • University representative for the 2022 Queen’s Anniversary Prize Honours Ceremony
  • Tyler Prize winner, 2025
  • 2021 Times Higher Education Awards, Research Project of the Year: STEM (short-listed)
  • Top downloaded and cited articles at African Journal of Ecology and Meteorological Applications

Websites

Publications

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