Prestigious Monica Cole Research Grant awarded to Biological Sciences PhD Student



John with a venomous Malabar pit viper (Trimeresurus
malabaricus) on a previous visit to India. The snake is not
deadly although we wouldn't recommend doing this at home!

 C. John Thorpe-Dixon, a PhD student within the Biological Sciences Group, has just won a  Monica Cole Research Grant from the Royal Geographical Society. Only one award is granted per year so this is quite an achievement. John started his PhD in October and is studying the Biodiversity and biogeography of the Indian Western Ghats. His PhD is supervised by Drs Mairi Knight and Dave Bilton (Plymouth University) along with Dr Aparne Watve of the Biome Conservation Foundation, Pune). John has only just returned from a highly successul initial visit to India where he met up with Dr Watve and, among others, officials from the University of Pune, and the Indian Institute of Science.  He is now back in the UK and planning his up-coming data collection trip in June 2012 which will be partly financed by the Monica Cole award.