Perfil
Robert J. Whittaker. Qualifications: BSc Botany and Geography, University of Hull; MSc in Ecology, University College North Wales; PhD, University College Cardiff (1985), on vegetation succession on recently deglaciated terrain, in Jotunheimen, Norway. Positions held: Departmental Demonstrator, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford (appointed 1986); University Lectureship, Geography, University of Oxford and Fellow St Edmund Hall (appointed 1990); Reader in Biogeography (awarded 1999); Professor of Biogeography (awarded 1999). Rob became an Emeritus Professor of Biogeography and Emeritus Fellow of St Edmund Hall in 2023. He has also held the positions of Honorary Professor in Macroecology and Climate, University of Copenhagen (2008-2013), and Full Professor (part time) in the Centre for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate at the University of Copenhagen (2015-2019). Rob has served as editor-in-chief of three international journals: Global Ecology & Biogeography, Journal of Biogeography, and Frontiers of Biogeography.
Rob is a founding member of the International Biogeography Society, and has served as Director-at-Large, President-Elect, President, and Past-President of the society.
Rob was elected a foreign member of the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa in July 2011, and in July 2022 was made a Distinguished Fellow of the International Biogeography Society, and in January 2024 received the society’s biennial Alfred Russel Wallace Award for a lifetime’s contributions to Biogeography. He was elected a member of Academia Europaea in 2024.
Rob’s research focuses on ecological biogeography, conservation biogeography and especially island biogeography. He has published over 200 peer-review articles and is author or co-author of several books, including Biogeography (OUP, 2010, 2017, co-author), Island Biogeography (OUP, 1998, 2007, 2023, first author), Conservation Biogeography (Wiley, 2011, co-editor and contributing author).
His current research programmes are focussed on island biogeography, especially of Macaronesia, and involve collaborations with laboratories in Spain, Greece, Portugal, France, Denmark, Germany and elsewhere.
