Dr Rob Lambert

Dr Rob Lambert is a multi-disciplinary academic at the University of Nottingham, working in environmental history and tourism and the environment. He holds a MA (Hons) in Modern History and a PhD in Environmental History from the University of St Andrews in Scotland. From 1998–2000 he held a Leverhulme Research Fellowship at St Andrews in the field of British environmental history studying the historical relationships between grey seals and people. Rob is also Senior Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Western Australia where he delivered the prestigious Alexander Lecture in 2006, taking as his theme ‘Contested Nature in the modern British countryside’. He has published a number of books: edited collections Species History in Scotland (1998); (with T.C. Smout) Rothiemurchus: Nature and People on a Highland Estate 1500–2000 (1999); (with Ian Rotherham) Invasive and Introduced Plants and Animals: human perceptions, attitudes and approaches to management(2011); and a research monograph Contested Mountains (2001) about the Cairngorms range in the Highlands of Scotland; as well as numerous academic articles on the past and present relationships between nature and people in Great Britain. Rob was a writer on the international ‘Ghosts of Gone Birds’ art  project in 2011; and was a Steering Group member of the environmental think-tank New Networks for Nature (N3) from 2011–2014. He also sits on the judging panel of the A Focus on Nature (AFON) scheme launched in 2012. In 2013, Rob was elected an Associate Member of the Centre for Environmental History and Policy (CEHP) at the University of Stirling.

He is a programme consultant, talking head expert and lead on-camera contributor to the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol and independent production companies working on a number of major TV and radio wildlife documentaries, including series on BBC1, BBC2, BBC Scotland, BBC4 and BBC Radio 4: Birds Britannia; Making Scotland’s Landscape; When Britain Went Wild; Springwatch Extra; Why the British Love Wildlife; Cairngorms: A Year in the Wild; In Pursuit of the Ridiculous; Attenborough’s Life Stories; Britain’s Big Wildlife Revival; Grand Tours of Scotland – The Charms of Nature; Shared Planet; Torrey Canyon: toxic tide and others. On three occasions Rob has voyaged south to the ice on expedition ships to serve as an IAATO International ‘Observer’ of sustainable tourism in Antarctica, and was part of the expedition staff on round-Britain cruises in 2009, 2012 and 2014 with Silversea, Noble Caledonia and GA Expeditions. He is a past President of the European Society for Environmental History, and has co-edited the international academic journal Environment and History since 2000.

Rob is a very keen British and global birder and cetacean-watcher, with around 30 years of field experience, and is passionate about showing people wildlife. He lives in Long Clawson in Leicestershire, and has attended the British Birdwatching Fair at Rutland Water for many years, the past few years as part of the Events Marquee team. Rob has been going to the Isles of Scilly for over 20 years, and its seascapes and landscapes remain his most cherished British place. Rob is Vice-President of the Isles of Scilly Wildlife Trust, and one of the national Ambassadors for the wider Wildlife Trusts movement.

Rob finished runner-up in ‘Celebrity Wild Brain of Britain’ at the British Birdwatching Fair in 2011 and 2012!

Dr Rob Lambert, University of Nottingham

E-mail: robert.lambert@nottingham.ac.uk Telephone: 01158 466699