Selected Funding and Awards
- PI (Principal Investigator), European Research Council Starting Grant, £1.25 million (awarded, 2026)
- PI, Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship, £1.75 million (awarded, 2025)
- Comparative Cognition Society Early Career Award for “outstanding contributions to the study of cognitive processes in animals”, $1000 prize, invited keynote talk at CO3 conference, USA (awarded, 2025)
- Anglia Ruskin University (ARU), Faculty of Science & Engineering “Above and Beyond” Award (awarded, 2022 & 2023), inc nomination from Prof Chris Parris, Head of School of Life Sciences, ARU
- Co-PI, NERC PhD Studentship with Prof Alex Thornton, Exeter University, 3.5-year PhD funding, £100,000 (awarded, 2025)
- Co-Applicant, Canadian Partnership Grant application with multiple Universities inc British Columbia, Harvard & Princeton, CAD $2.5 million (awarded, 2025)
- PI, ARU, Research Support Development Grant, £13,300 (awarded, 2023)
- Co-PI, ARU, RFID equipment bid, with Dr Çağlar Akçay & Dr Julia Mackenzie, £4,500 (awarded, 2023)
- Consultancy, income generation from Rethink Priorities to ARU, £3,300 (awarded, 2022)
- PI, Cambridge University, Career Support Grant, £5,000 (awarded, 2021)
- Co-A, India-Oxford Initiative Fund with Dr Nishant Kumar, Oxford University, £5,000 (awarded, 2021)
- Co-A, Cambridge University (Corvid Lab Support) with Prof Nicky Clayton, £50,000 (awarded, 2021)
- PI, Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship, Cambridge University, £100,000 (2021) and £150,000 (2019) (Stage 1 - won Departmental competition; Stage 2 - won University-wide competition to secure Issac Newton Trust 50% matched funds; Stage 3 - shortlisted from 700 applicants but not awarded Fellowship)
- PI, Austrian Ministry of Science, Research & Economy, Marietta Blau Grant, €15,000 (awarded, 2015)
- PI, Vienna University, Dissertation Completion Fellowship, €6,000 (awarded, 2015)
Selected Conferences, Courses and Media Engagement
CONFERENCES, COURSES, WORKSHOPS
35+ talk/ poster presentations/ panel speaker; 7 conference organiser/ chair/ attendance roles; 6 workshops
- European Conference for Behavioural Biology, Liverpool & Prague (talk from me and talk from PhD student Sophie Ridgway 2026; poster 2018; talk 2014)
- Royal Society invited events and training, inc Effective Leadership Training Course and “Meeting of Minds” conference, London, UK (2025-date)
- Invited speaker for CEC Workshop on Conservation Funding, Exeter University (2026)
- International Congress of Infant Studies Conference, Panama City, Panama (co-author poster by Francis Yuen, CONNECT, 2026)
- Invited Department Research Talks, Bielefeld University, Exeter University, Hull University (2025), Oxford University (2023)
- Comparative Cognition Society Conference, Albuquerque, USA (invited keynote speaker and award, 2025; invited symposium co-organiser, 2024)
- Big-Team Science Conference, virtual (hackathon co-lead, 2025; talk, 2024 - https://youtu.be/oQGEgr62Blo?si=iI05VjfssQkwaUCY; invited talk & hackathon contributor, 2023; invited talk, hackathon leader, panel speaker 2022)
- Cognitive Science Conference, Netherlands (co-author on poster by lead Prof Lucy Cheke, 2024)
- Primate Society for Great Britain, ARU, Cambridge, UK (organising committee, chair, attendance, 2023)
- ASAB winter meeting, UK (two posters with one presented by MSc student Arnaud Bruat, 2023)
- British Ornithologists’ Union & IBIS Journal conference, UK (invited keynote talk, 2022)
- International Society for Behavioural Ecology conference (virtual talk, 2022; New York talk 2014)
- Animal Welfare Group Nigeria, virtual (talk, 2022)
- Rethink Priorities and London School of Economics, Interspecies welfare comparisons, UK (externally funded participation and chair role, 2022)
- Rethink Priorities, Cognition, Welfare and the Problem of Interspecies Comparisons Workshop (2021)
- British Psychological Society, UK (talks by PhD student Dr Ning Ding, 2019 & 2018)
- International Ethological Conference, Newcastle and Lisbon (posters: 2017 & 2013)
MEDIA OUTPUT AND PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
- Publications that have featured my research – inc Nature (https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-026-01727-x), BBC, Independent, Evening Standard, Daily Telegraph, Le Monde, New Scientist, The Herald, Cambridgeshire Independent, Science Daily, Phys.org, National Geographic, Psychology Today, Science Alert, Cell, The Wildlife Society, Daily Star, Popular Science
- TV/ Video – The Associated Press Feature with Dr Rachael Miller at Waddesdon Manor (2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT3E3rrYni8), Miller et al (2022) Video Abstract for Current Biology by Rachael Miller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PfsucgiwYo and Radio – BBC Radio 4 “News Beat” Today Programme live interview with Justin Webb (2023), BBC Radio Cambridgeshire (2022 & 2023)
- Other – Lead author on Conversation article (2023: https://theconversation.com/why-were-interviewing-captive-birds-to-find-the-best-to-release-into-the-wild-202874), my research featured in Conversation article (2023: https://theconversation.com/are-crows-really-that-clever-212914), invited to comment on a Current Biology paper in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/20/science/falkland-islands-falcons.html, 2023), Cambridge & Chelmsford Science Festivals (2018 & 2023)
Other Activites
Academic Editor: PLOS ONE (2022-2024, impact factor 3.752, Q1 journal)
Invited Action Editor: Special Issue in Learning and Behavior (impact 1.926, published in 2025)
Invited Symposium Organiser: Symposium dedicated to Prof Nicky Clayton at Comparative Cognition Society Conference, April 2024, USA, with Dr Josh Plotnik of City University of New York
Conference Organiser: Primate Society of Great Britain, Spring Meeting at ARU (May 2023)
Memberships: Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, International Society for Behavioural Ecology, Comparative Cognition Society, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
Grant and PhD Reviewer (2023-date): Austrian Science Fund, French National Research Agency, National Fund for Scientific Research
External PhD Interviewer: University of Cambridge (2023-2026)
Ad hoc journal reviewer: including Cognition, Behavioral Ecology & Sociobiology, PLOS ONE, Biology Letters, Learning & Behavior, Animal Cognition, American Journal of Primatology, Behavioural Processes, Peer J, Frontiers in Zoology, Ethology, Wilson Journal of Ornithology, Behavior, European Journal of Wildlife Research, Journal of Veterinary Behavior, Animal Cognition and Behavior
Other: Waddesdon Support Group Volunteer (COVID-19 national lockdown 1, 2020, UK)