Academic and Professional Background

• Background:

  Rupert holds a BSc in Marine and Freshwater Biology and an MSc in Taxonomy and Biodiversity from Imperial College, London. His main research interest is with biodiversity assessment, and in particular, the species level taxonomy and systematics of fishes. He is also involved in developing new methodological and bioinformatic techniques to support these themes of research.

• Research:

  Here at the Bio-Protection Research Centre, Rupert is investigating molecular identification techniques for biosecurity in the ornamental fish trade.

• Publications:
  1. Collins R.A., Boykin L.M., Cruickshank R.H., Armstrong K.F. (2012) Barcoding’s next top model: an evaluation of nucleotide substitution models for specimen identification. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. URL.
  2. Collins R.A., Armstrong K.F., Meier, R., Yi, Y., Brown S.D.J., Cruickshank R.H., Keeling, S., Johnston, C. (2012) Barcoding and border biosecurity: identifying cyprinid fishes in the aquarium trade. PLoS ONE 7(1): e28381. URL.
  3. Brown S.D.J., Collins R.A., Boyer S., Malumbres-Olarte J., Lefort M-C., Vink, C.J., Cruickshank R.H. (2012) Spider: an R package for the analysis of species identity and evolution, with particular reference to DNA barcoding. Molecular Ecology Resources. URL.