Graeme Buchanan

President

Graeme is a lifelong birder who, after a Zoology BSc at Aberdeen, worked on upland research in the UK and on island conservation in the Indian Ocean. After completing his PhD on Reed Bunting paternity at Sunderland University, he joined RSPB Centre for Conservation Science. There he researched upland and moorland birds before moving to international conservation, where he has subsequently worked on a broad range of topics and species, many using satellite remote-sensing data. He is currently Head of International, Conservation Science. He has served on BOU Meetings Committee 2010 – 2014 and BOU Council 2014 – 2018.

Email Graeme

Emma Cunningham

Vice President

Emma gained her BSc in Zoology from the University of Glasgow and her PhD in the breeding ecology of wildfowl from the University of Sheffield. A Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship then took her to the University of Cambridge where she worked on the impact of avian brood parasitism on host reproductive strategies in neotropical birds in Central America. Since 2014 she has been based at the University of Edinburgh, initially supported by a Royal Society University Research Fellowship, where her focus has been on maternal responses to infection in gamebirds and the impact of parasitism in seabird populations. She has previously sat on Council of the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour in a number of roles, been a member of NERC College and and is currently an Associate Editor for the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Animal Ecology. She is currently leading the development of the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Adapting to Environmental Change.

Natalia Zielonka

Chair, Engagement Committee

Nat is a research fellow at DICE at the University of Kent. She is interested in the interactions between people’s wellbeing, nature engagement and biodiversity and her research informs the design of multifunctional landscapes. Prior to this, Nat researched the relationships between rewilding and shrubland birds as a Conservation Scientist at the RSPB, and the role of biodiversity in fruit farms in Brazil and the UK, during her PhD at the University of East Anglia. Nat has been BOU’s Social Media Support Officer and a member of the Engagement Committee since 2021, and she is committed to making scientific research and ornithology widely accessible and inclusive.

Danielle Hinchcliffe

Engagement Committee member

Danni is a lecturer in Conservation Biology and Ecology at Liverpool John Moores University. Danni gained a Molecular Ecology PhD at the University of East Anglia where she studied the once critically-endangered Seychelles warbler and participated in its successful translocation to Fregate Island. She since worked as a Senior Scientist for an NGO and as a Teaching Fellow/now Honorary Lecturer at University of Salford. Her ornithological research uses a combination of molecular and ecological tools to understand how birds adapt to environmental challenges. She uses a range of eco-physiological and behavioural tools to investigate individual and population-level responses and use this information to optimise conservation management. Danni is a Senior Teaching Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an associate editor for the British Ecological Society journal, Ecological Solutions and Evidence.

Elwyn Sharps

Engagement Committee member

Elwyn (he/him) currently works for Natural Resources Wales (NRW) as a Marine and Coastal Ornithologist. Since completing his PhD looking at effects of livestock grazing of saltmarshes on breeding Redshank he has also worked as a Conservation Scientist and Conservation Officer for the RSPB, as Field Survey Manager for CEH and as People and Places Officer for NRW. Elwyn has been bird-mad since he was a teenager. He grew up spending his weekends and school holidays volunteering at RSPB Conwy and was fortunate enough to get his first paid job as an Information Warden at this reserve at the young age of just 16 years old, meaning his career in conservation has spanned over 20 years to date. Outside of work Elwyn has played an active role in the ornithological community. He spent four years on the International Wader Study Group’s Executive Committee as Publicity Officer – which involved managing the groups social media and publicity. In addition, after completing Stonewall’s ‘Workplace Trans Allies programme’ Elwyn volunteered for the RSPB as an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion advisor. Elwyn is a keen runner and is currently training for the London Marathon, a challenge he is completing in aid of WWF-UK.

Leila Walker

Chief Operations Officer
Leila has responsibility for the day to day management and running of the BOU including conferences and events, the business side of the BOU’s journal, IBIS, social media and communications, website development and content management and servicing BOU Council and its Standing Committees.