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DrRichard Gill

Associate Professor in Evolutionary & Experimental Ecology

Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park) - Faculty of Natural Sciences

Orcid identifier0000-0001-9389-1284 (opens in a new tab)⁠
  • Associate Professor in Evolutionary & Experimental Ecology
    Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park) - Faculty of Natural Sciences
  • 020 7594 2215 (Work)
  • N2.13, Munro, Silwood Park, United Kingdom

RESEARCH

 

Imperial College London PhD opportunities - insect responses to global change factors.

 

The Gill research group is looking for PhD candidates to join their research group studying beneficial insect responses to environmental change and pollution and the impacts on ecological function.

 

Taking a genes-2-ecosystem approach, we adopt a variety of approaches spanning biological levels: molecular-physiology-behaviour-population-community_interactions. Our focal insect system typically being studied are bees (along with their host plants), and the PhD candidate would have access to a variety of molecular tools, experimental setups, field sites and large datasets.

 

For chosen candidates, we will fully support the application. Whilst proposed projects can be flexible (desk-, lab- and field-based options), we have a set of projects outlined that fall under the following topics:

 

1.       Thermal trait-based approaches for understanding Arctic plant-pollinator responses to climate change (northern food web systems)

2.       Leveraging entomological museum specimens for understanding how different dimensions of biodiversity are responding to environmental change

3.       Determining how changes to climate alter the impacts of pollution (e.g. pesticides) on the health and function of beneficial insects (and microbiomes)

4.       Automated sensing for understanding insect distributions and dispersal across urban matrices.

5.       Polli-markers: cueing into plant pollination signals for mapping pollinator function across landscapes at scale.

 

A variety of competitive scholarships are available, including:

 

# Life Sciences Department PhD - Link: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/life-sciences/postgraduate/research/phd-opportunities/department-of-life-sciences-phd-studentships/

Deadline: 23:59 BST on 08 Jan 2027 / Eligibility: UK nationals (including EU candidates with UK settled status)

 

# Imperial President’s PhD Link: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/study/fees-and-funding/postgraduate-doctoral/grants-scholarships/presidents-phd/

Deadline: 23:59 BST on 02 November 2026 / Eligibility: Worldwide

 

# Commonwealth PhD – Link: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/study/fees-and-funding/postgraduate-taught/grants-scholarships/international-scholarship-collaborations/ics/

Deadline: 16:00 hours BST on 20 October 2026 / Eligibility: please see: https://cscuk.fcdo.gov.uk/scholarships/commonwealth-phd-scholarships-for-least-developed-countries-and-vulnerable-states/

 

If interested: please email Richard Gill (r.gill@imperial.ac.uk) with your CV, the topic(s) of interest, and any supporting text, ASAP.

Dr Gill will assess the candidates on a rolling basis and he will contact you if you are a suitable candidate. Emails will stop being assessed no later than Dec 21st.

 

 

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Please see my personal webpage: https://www.gillinsectresearch.com/


Our recent focus has been to study how rapidly changing environments, induced by anthropogenic activities and practices, pose threats to insect functional groups that play important roles in terrestrial ecosystems.

1. Impact of pesticide exposure on the molecular, physiological and behavioural responses of bumblebees, and the consequences for colony fitness and population dynamics.

2. Quantifying multi-stressor effects on sublethal endpoints (behaviours) of bumblebees. Investigating pesticide, nutrition and temperature interactions.

3. Understanding how climatic variation determines taxonomic and functional trait distributions in Arctic bumblebee communities, and how this shapes plant-pollinator network responses.

4. Leveraging museum entomological collections to understand past, present and future phenological and morphological responses to environmental change.

5. Variation in the genomes and microbiomes of wild bee populations

6. Effects of land-use change on ant community competition & dynamics

7. Elucidating early pollination signatures in plants using molecular and spectral analyses to identify biomarkers



Grants

DS Charitable Foundation (£6.8K) to support ArcticBuzz expedition (2024-2025)

Sidara fund (£200K) to support sensing of insect biodiversity in urban environments (Senseable City Gardens) through an MIT and Imperial partnership (2024).

PhenomUK grant (£11.5K) for Spectral Bioindicators of Pollination for Mitigating Pollination Deficits Across Agri-landscapes (2024)

Fjallraven explorers grant (£4K) for research on ArcticBuzz project A. Cantwell-Jones & R. Gill (2023)

QMC Long Term research grant (~£30K) over 5 years awarded to R. Gill to support Arctic fieldwork (2023-28)

CB Dennis Trust, Bee Insurance Ltd & BBKA (£90K) to fund PhD student Kieran Storer, co-supervised by R. Gill and Peter Graystock (2023)

INTERACT Transnational Access ~£3K awarded to A. Cantwell-Jones & R. Gill to support ArcticBuzz Phase II project fieldwork (2023)

NERC/Grantham capacity building grant (£50K) titled 'Envirobotics' awarded to Savolainen, Gill, Woodward and others for proof of concept projects (2022)

Chemistry CDT and Syngenta to fund PhD student (~£90K; starting Oct 2022), awarded to Leon Barron, Bonnie Waring, Will Pearse, Guy Woodward, Richard Gill.

INTERACT Transnational Access ~£4K awarded to A. Cantwell-Jones & R. Gill to support ArcticBuzz Phase II project fieldwork (2022)

Royal Geographic Society expedition £3K to support Arctic research awarded to L. Hudson, S. Eggleston, A. Cantwell-Jones & R. Gill (2022)

Genetics Society fieldwork £1.5K to support bumblebee and plant DNA barcoding awarded to A. Cantwell-Jones & R. Gill (2022)

Queckett Microscopical Society research grant - £1.8K awarded to Aoife Cantwell-Jones & Richard Gill (2021)

CB Dennis Trust (~£90K) to fund PhD student Monika Yordanova, co-supervised by Peter Graystock, Sophie Evison & Richard Gill (2020)

British Ecological Society large grant £20K awarded to Peter Graystock in collaboration with Richard Gill

INTERACT Transnational Access ~£4K awarded to Richard Gill

National Geographic Research & Exploration Award of $47.5K in support of Cross Polli:Nation awarded to Poppy Lakeman-Fraser, with Richard Gill as a scientific collaborator / advisor

Sainsbury’s Farming Scholars Creativity Event - £30K awarded to the team Oliver Windram, Oscar Ces, Richard Gill, Paul French, Lily Peck, James Brown, Chris Dunsby and Sarah Blansford

NERC standard grant on bees response to a century of land use change. £381,457 FEC awarded to Richard Gill (in collaboration with Prof Ian Barnes, NHM London, with total grant £790K FEC) (2017-2020)

British Ecological Society large grant (£17K) awarded to Andres Arce in collaboration with Richard Gill

Grantham Pump Priming grant (£25K) - sustainable solutions for controlling pest species in small island ecosystems - awarded to Richard Gill

NERC standard (new investigator) grant on Behavioural and molecular responses to pesticide exposure in bumblebees. £504K FEC awarded to Richard Gill (in collaboration with Dr Yannick Wurm, QMUL, with total grant ~£1.1million FEC) (2014-2018)

Royal Society Research Grant (£14K): Pesticide impairment to bee foraging behaviour (2014) awarded to Richard Gill.
As part of the Imperial Science Breaks series, below is a video we live-streamed in 2020 in which research by Bonnie Waring, Peter Graystock, and myself is showcased. If you are particularly interested in my work on insect pollinators, please forward to 18 mins into the video.