Adam Hart

Text Mode | Print Mode
Site Map | Help

Where am I ? : Resources : Faculties and Academic Departments : Faculty of Education, Humanities and Sciences : Department of Natural and Social Sciences : Staff

Staff

Adam Hart
M.A. (Cantab), Ph.D. (Sheffield), FRES

Position
Reader in Science Communication

Contact
Email: ahart@glos.ac.uk
Tel +44 (0)1242 714670

At the University of Gloucestershire, Adam is Reader in Science Communication and also lectures in Ecology, Evolutionary Ecology, Statistics, Research Methods and Animal Behaviour as well as leading field courses. He has a number of active research interests, including ant communication, the links between colony organisation and disease and studying mammal populations. He is a Director of the Bee Guardian Foundation (www.beeguardianfoundation.org) and is involved with the Project in researching pollen use and nesting behaviour in solitary bees. He is also involved in promoting the BGF figure of the Bee Guardian - the University has itself become the first University Bee Guardian. The BGF recently won nearly 50K through the Big Lottery People's Millions to turn Gloucester into the World's first Bee Guardian City.

As a Reader in Science Communication, Adam is actively involved in a number of media-related projects including science input for BBC Radio Gloucestershire and a monthly column (Research Focus) in the Gloucestershire Echo and Citizen newspapers. He recently wrote and presented a documentary for BBC World Service (The Golden Treasure — http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00dcg0t) and appeared in BBC1's Wallace and Gromit's World of Inventions. He is a speaker at the Cheltenham Science Festival and is a regular speaker at beekeeping and scientific meetings throughout the UK. Adam is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Ecological Entomology, a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. In 2010 he was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship and was the winner of the Society of Biology's Science Communicator of the Year 2010, delivering the Society's 2011 Charter Lecture.

As well as more than 50 scientific publications, he has written numerous popular science articles and is currently contributing to a book on forensic investigation. His research has been featured in a number of magazine and newspaper articles, and radio, TV and film productions.

Adam joined the Department in August 2005. He was an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge, studying, among other things, ecology, evolutionary biology, geology and empirical psychology. After graduating as a zoologist he moved to Sheffield in 1998 to begin a PhD on the organisation of social insect colonies (ants, bees and wasps). Working under Professor Francis Ratnieks, Adam’s doctoral work took him to Mexico, Panama (as a Smithsonian Research Fellow), Brazil and various locations in Europe where he studied organisation and cooperation in leafcutting ants, stingless bees and honeybees.

Cooperation is only one aspect of sociality; societies are also full of conflicts between individuals as they try to ensure their interests are represented. Adam studied aspects of conflict in insect and vertebrate societies as part of his NERC-funded post-doctoral research in Sheffield.

Post-doctoral work led to a short-term lecturer position at the University of Sheffield where he lectured on Social Insect Biology, Animal Behaviour, and Conflict and Cooperation, as well as leading field courses and practical classes.

Recent Publications (for full list see CV)

Rees SG, Hart AG, Goodenough AE and Stafford R (TBC) Testing basic assumptions and the effectiveness of capture-mark-recapture population estimates using a computer simulation with known population size. Ecological Modelling in press
Hart AG, Stafford R and Goodenough AE (2011) Bridging the lecturer/student divide: the role of residential field courses. Bioscience Education 17-3
Hart AG (2011) Please sirs, can we have some more? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 26:267
Goodenough, AE, Hart, AG, Stafford, R, Elliot, SL (2011) Contrasting temporal changes in lay-date distributions in co-occurring populations of Blue Tits Cyanistes caeruleus and Great Tits Parus major. Bird Study 58: 221-225
Goodenough, A.E., Hart, A.G., Elliot, S.L. (2011) What prevents phenological adjustment to climate change in migrant bird species? Evidence against the “arrival constraint” hypothesis. International Journal of Biometeorology. 55:97-102.
Higby LK, Magileviciute E, Hart AG, Evans PGH (2011) Bottlenose dolphins and boat traffic: attraction or avoidance in the presence of calves. Long-term datasets on marine mammals: learning from the past to manage the future, Proceedings of the 25th Conference of the European Cetacean Society B12
Stafford R, Hart AG, Collins L, Kirkhope CL, Williams RL, Rees SG, Lloyd JR, Goodenough AE (2010) Eu-Social Science: The Role of Internet Social Networks in the Collection of Bee Biodiversity Data PLoS One 5(12): e14381. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0014381
Stafford R, Goodenough AE, Newberry J, Catlin-Groves C, Hart AG, Davies M and Williams G (2010) The Virtual Rocky Shore Proceedings of the New Universities Applied Research Competition Coventry University
Hart AG (2010) Popular ants with style and substance Trends in Ecology and Evolution 25: 623-624
Howlett, S., Jakes, A., Hart, A.G. (2010) Effects of fence type on pronghorn movement in North Central Montana. 24th Annual Pronghorn Workshop: Partnering for Pronghorn, Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Wyoming, USA.
Goodenough A.E., Hart A.G., and Stafford R (2010) Is adjustment of breeding phenology keeping pace with the need for change? Linking observed response in woodland birds to changes in temperature and selection pressure. Climatic Change 102: 687-697.
Goodenough A.E., Stafford R., Catlin-Groves C.L., Smith A.L., Hart A.G. (2010). Within- and among- variation in measurements of animal biometrics and their influence on accurate quantification of common biometric-based condition indices. Annales Zoologici Fennici 47: 323-334
Kirkhope C.L., Williams R.L., Catlin-Groves C.L., Rees S.G., Montesanti C., Jowers J., Stubbs H., Newberry J., Hart A.G., Goodenough A.E. and Stafford R. (2010). Social Networking for Biodiversity: the BeeID Project. Proceedings of the iSociety 2010 Conference, London. 637-638
Lloyd, J.R., Hart A.G. and Stafford R. 2010. Development of a key to identify individual green turtles from photographic records. Proceedings of the 30th Annual Symposium on Sea Turtle Biology and Conservation, Goa, India.
Stafford R, Goodenough AE, Hart AG et al. 2010) Tools for Teaching Ecology and Evolution, JorumOpen http://open.jorum.ac.uk:80/xmlui/handle/123456789/2730
Stafford R, Hart AG et al. (2010) The Virtual Rocky Shore JorumOpen http://open.jorum.ac.uk:80/xmlui/handle/123456789/2729
Hart AG et al. 2010 Evidence for contemporary evolution in Darwin’s lifetime Current Biology 20: R95
Elliot SL and Hart AG (2010) Density dependent prophylactic immunity reconsidered in the light of host group-living and social behaviour Ecology 91: 65-72
Stafford R, Goodenough AE and Hart AG (2010) Real versus perceived economics savings of garden vegetable cultivation International Journal of Ecological Economics & Statistics 16: 79-85
Goodenough AE, Elliot SL, Maitland DP and Hart AG (2009) Variation in the relationship between lay date and clutch size in three cavity-nesting woodland passerines Acta Ornitologica 44: 27-36
Goodenough AE, Elliot SL and Hart AG (2009) Are nest sites actively chosen? Testing a common assumption for three resource limited birds Acta Oecologia 35: 598-602
Medina LM, Hart AG and Ratnieks FLW (2009) Hygienic behaviour in the stingless bees Melipona beecheii and Scaptotrigona pectoralis (Hymenoptera: Meliponini). Genetics and Molecular Research 8: 571-576
Goodenough AEG, Elliot, S and Hart AG (2009) The challenges of conservation for declining migrants: are reserve-based initiatives during the breeding season appropriate for the pied flycatcher Ficedula hypoleuca IBIS 151: 429-439
Jackson DJ & Hart AG 2009 Sanitation and Sociality. Animal Behaviour77:e1-e5
Maitland DP & Hart AG (2008) A fluorescent vertebrate: the Iberian Worm-lizard, Blanus cinereus (Amphisbaenidae). Herpetological Review. 39: 50-51
Goodenough AE, Maitland DP, Hart AG & Elliot SL (2008) Variation in offspring quality with cavity orientation in the great tit. Ethology, Ecology and Evolution 20: 375-389
Goodenough AEG, Maitland DP, Hart AG and Elliot SL (2008) Is reserve-based management during the breeding season an effective conservation tool for declining migrant species? The case of the pied flycatcher. British Ornithologists’ Union Conference “Bird Conservation in Response to Global Change: from Ornithology to Policy”,
Goodenough AE, Maitland DP, Hart AG & Elliot SL (2008) Nestbox orientation: a species-specific influence in woodland passerines. Bird Study 55:222-232
Stevenson K, Stallwood B & Hart AG (2008) Tire rubber recycling and bioremediation: a review. Bioremediation Journal 12: 1-11
Evison S., Hart AG et al, (2008) Minor workers have a major role in the maintenance of leafcutter ant foraging trails. Animal Behaviour 75: 963-969
Hart AG (2007) Waste and Hygiene in the Leafcutting ants, in Aspects of Beekeeping, Central Association of Beekeepers, 73-81
Goodenough AEG, Maitland DP, Hart AG and Elliot SL (2006) Birds And Their Boxes: Orientation Matters. British Ornithologists’ Union Conference “Woodland Birds: Their Ecology and Management”
Brown MJF, Bot, AMN & Hart AG (2006) Mortality rates and division of labour in the leaf-cutting ant, Atta colombica. Journal of Insect Science Article 18
Hart AG & Monnin T (2006) Conflict over the timing of breeder replacement in vertebrate and invertebrate societies Insectes Sociaux 53: 375-389
Hart AG & Jackson DJ (2006) U-turns on ant pheromone trails. Current Biology 16: R42-R43
Hart AG (2005) Why we invoke Darwin. Scientist 19: 8
Wensleers , Hart AG et al. (2005). A test of worker policing theory in an advanced eusocial wasp, Vespula rufa. Evolution 59:1306-1314
Wenseleers T, Hart AG & Ratnieks FLW (2005). Queen execution and caste conflict in stingless bees. Ethology 110: 725-736
Hart AG and Ratnieks FLW (2005). Crossing the taxonomic divide: conflict and its resolution in societies of totipotent individuals Journal of Evolutionary Biology 13: 383-395
Wenseleers T, Hart AG & Ratnieks FLW (2004). When resistance is useless: the evolution of acquiescence and policing in insect societies American Naturalist 164: E154-E167
Hart AG (2004). If you can lose a driving license, why not a PhD? Nature 430:503