Dr Gail Austen

Dr Gail Austen held a five-year post-doctoral research assistant position with Prof Zoe Davies on the RELATE project, Environmental Spaces and the Feel-Good Factor: Relating Subjective Wellbeing to Biodiversity. This European Research Council-funded project aims to understand which components of nature and biodiversity play a role in human wellbeing.

Dr Austen started at DICE in 2013 as a PhD student researching accuracy, error and bias in species identification. Gail was also a Graduate Teaching Assistant and completed her PGCHE at the same time. She is involved with biological recording in Kent and is an active participant in the Kent Reptile and Amphibian Group.

Dr Gail Austen is a member of the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology.

Gail is currently working on short contract "Woodland biodiversity for human health and wellbeing across Britain" with Dr Jessica Fisher, Prof Zoe Davie and Prof Martin Dallimer. Working with the Woodland Trust, the team are looking at how the characteristics of biodiversity can help improve human wellbeing.

How biodiversity affects wellbeing in human-nature interactions; understanding the mechanisms of accurate species identification with methods widely used in face recognition research.  

Fellow of the Linnean Society